Reforged
by MakKeiUra
Summary: A collaboration by Y-PenDraig and MakKeiUra. Happily Ever After was all that Tsuruko ever wanted, but in the battle of good versus evil you do not get what you want unless you grab it. An old and tremendous evil has other ideas; an old artifact may be the key; is Tsuruko capable of balancing the battle and a new love?
1. Chapter 1

"Reforged"

By Y-PenDraig and MakKeiUra

000

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHORS' NOTE ON CONTINUITY: This story uses a mixed manga/anime continuity that starts to branch off from the Burning Blades arc/TV series episode 25. Simply stated, Keitaro's initial arrival at the Hinata Inn and the order he meets the girls is the same as it is in the TV series, as well as Granny Hina's departure from the same. The increased presence of Shirai and Haitani as well as Kentaro Sakata is also as it was in the TV series, as well as Mei, and Moe-Chan. Beyond that, events that occur in the manga should be considered completely canon except for ages; we'll keep to the TV series there.

INTRODUCTION: Y-PenDraig and I welcome you, the reader, to this story. It grew out of discussion between the two of us about Tsuruko Aoyama and a shared desire to tell a good, long story involving her. The regular rating will be T for Teen for the story proper, but owing to the limey/lemon idea that kind of inspired this madness, you will see omake side-stories posted independently that are rated M for Mature.

000

[Arrival in Hinata City will be in thirty minutes, please enjoy the view of Sagami Bay…]

Tsuruko held her katana Ikazuchi on her lap as Shippu snuggled on her shoulder, napping lightly. She had attempted to sleep a bit earlier during the train ride, but found herself unable. For the fifth time, she mentally took an inventory of what she had in her small travel bag for her trip to see Motoko. Tsuruko travelled light as a rule, but her former husband had frequently chided her that she travelled too light for a swordswoman used to a secluded life in the mountains high above Kyoto; including sometimes forgetting her identification card and her weapons permit. Things someone travelling with a deadly weapon in modern day Japan should never be without.

She exhaled slowly, practicing the calming exercises again. That woman's eyes were on her again. Judging the woman and her young daughter seated next to her in the seats directly across the aisle from her, clearly the younger was more mature than the senior. Ever since boarding the train the woman could barely disguise her contempt for Tsuruko. To the woman's credit, it seemed entirely due to Tsuruko's style of dress and bearing, and not jealousy at her looks. She had encountered amused looks before, and some laughter which Tsuruko actually enjoyed, but outright disdain? At least the young child seemed to look at Tsuruko with appreciation, and both Tsuruko and Shippu had returned that with a smile and a nod. The mother, however, had made several comments not to look in Tsuruko and Shippu's general direction across the train-car due to her being "loony."

'If she speaks out of her place again, I shall have Shippu deal with her.' Tsuruko thought as she once again gazed out the window at the passing buildings of the Tokyo Metropolitan area started to melt into Hinata City.

'We shall see how Motoko-han's training has proceeded.' Tsuruko mused inwardly as she found herself reflecting on what had happened in the past year to bring her to this point.

000

One year earlier...

"A fine garden party, Tsuruko-chan." Granny Hina said as she sipped daintily from her saucer of sake. The diminutive old woman swinging her legs back and forth as she sat on the deck next to her granddaughter Kanako and the one she had directed her statement at.

"I am glad you approve, Hina-sama." Tsuruko looked down at the old woman with a slight smile.

Kanako silently sipped her tea.

"It has been a while since I have had time to admire the God's Cry dojo grounds," Hina said, observing the various other guests milling around the somewhat informal gathering.

"When I heard that you would be in Kyoto with your granddaughter briefly before the New Zealand leg of your world tour," Tsuruko smiled, "I made sure you got an invitation to see the new renovations to the grounds." She frowned slightly, "such a shame I could not invite your grandson and my little sister and their friends, but both me and my husband are going out of town for a few days tomorrow and it just was not feasible."

'Plus, I doubt Motoko-han is ready to come back home just yet,' Tsuruko mentally amended.

Hina nodded slowly. "Tell me… how is Ko-chan?"

Tsuruko smiled. "He is doing well. His work as a demon-slayer keeps him busy, but he is home at least three or four days in a week most of the time."

"I am happy I introduced you to him," Hina tittered. "And pushed you two to marry."

Kanako quietly and efficiently set down her tea. The black-clad Urashima seemed to be scanning each and every party guest in turn. Almost as if on cue, her attention was turned to where Ko was, next to one of the many koi ponds, beside him was a young woman with short red hair, a matching kimono of about twenty-eight years with a double stroller and two twin toddler boys of about fourteen months of age strapped securely inside said stroller.

"Your childhood friend, Tsuruko-san?" Kanako asked, nodding towards the woman "Kimiko-san?"

Tsuruko nodded in confirmation.

"So nice you are still close to your best friend from childhood," Hina commented

Tsuruko smirked. "Well, she lives just down the mountain path. Not many others around here."

"Such a tragedy, her husband…" Hina hummed, shaking her head.

"Yes, pancreatic cancer acts fast... Ko-kun and I tried to perform an exorcism to see if it was a demon that was plaguing him," Tsuruko said distantly, then she shook her head in sadness at the memory. "No, it was just his fate."

"And with two newborn baby boys," Kanako said in sympathy. "How is his widow doing?"

"Kimiko-chan is doing as well as can be expected in the year since Hiroyuki's passing," Tsuruko replied evenly. "Since we live close, Ko-kun and I try to help out whenever and wherever we can even with our busy schedules."

"That is very loving and honorable of you both." Hina nodded. "But… what about *your* family? I told you both at your wedding that sooner rather than later was best for children for such powerful warriors as yourselves; so you could teach the next generation of samurai and demon hunters." Hina giggled. "Also better when you're younger, too. More energy."

A bittersweet smile graced Tsuruko's lips. "About that, Hina-sama…"

The Urashima family matriarch looked up at Tsuruko, waiting.

"We have been to the doctor… several doctors… tried at least as many different treatments," Tsuruko said quietly, "but Ko is sterile."

Hina looked down, she exhaled slowly. "I am sorry."

Kanako shifted, giving Tsuruko a sympathetic look, then returned her attention to the gathering and the early evening. Twinkling stars were beginning to make their appearance in the mountains outside Kyoto. Tsuruko always loved evenings like this. Hina enjoyed them as well, and unspoken between the three women was the option of adoption for Tsuruko and Ko. Unspoken because one of the reasons Hina had pushed Tsuruko and Ko to meet each other, was her idea that natural children from their union would be some of the most powerful ki warriors the world had ever seen.

'Adoption…' Kanako mused in her thoughts. 'Good enough for me, the Urashima black cat witch,' Kanako thought bitterly, 'but not for a noblewoman of the Aoyama clan.' Intellectually, she knew why biological children were so important to Tsuruko, but it did not make the unspoken comment sting any less. Her gaze fixed on Ko and Kimiko and the two twin baby boys Satoshi and Nobuo, who Ko was now carefully assisting with feeding them from jars of baby food in their strollers. Kanako noted the more relaxed set of Kimiko's shoulders and her brightening mood as Ko helped feed her children with a small smile on his face.

"Your husband is very good with children, Tsuruko-sama." Kanako spoke softly.

A ghost of Tsuruko's usual smirk of good humor appeared on her lips. "That comes from being the oldest child in a large family; his closest sibling is eleven years younger than him, same as myself and Motoko."

Hina chuckled. "So his mother and father had him help raise his siblings."

"As my mother and father had me help raise Motoko." Tsuruko matched Hina's chuckle.

Kanako smiled. It was a pleasant thought. She was silent for a moment, then she looked down, then up as she stood to face Tsuruko. Hina only briefly acknowledged this, waiting.

"Tsuruko-sama," Kanako bowed. "Once again, I thank you for helping me."

Tsuruko smiled at the dark haired teenage girl. "I accept your thanks. But be not ashamed; a crush on a sibling is something that oftentimes happens in situations such as yours. You had no idea that that childhood promise at that old Inn annex with your brother would have unleashed a curse."

Kanako looked down, blushing a touch. Hina had brought Kanako to see Tsuruko and Ko five months before. This was after Hina had woken in the middle of the night when they were in a hotel in Singapore. Kanako had been talking in her sleep. Hina had only to hear the words for a few minutes before she knew what needed to be done. Fortunately, Tsuruko and Ko together were able to silence the presence that was driving Kanako's compulsion towards her brother and his "promise" when they were children. After that, Tsuruko calmly talked Kanako through why she had to make peace with her lust for her brother within her soul; but not to pursue it. To do so would rob Keitaro of his sister if Kanako succeeded, and for Kanako irrevocably change her Big Brother.

"I only know Urashima-san from what you, your grandmother, and Motoko-han has written in her letters," Tsuruko had told her gently. "But if you seduced him; he would blame himself forever and ever. The guilt would be crushing for him. You love him; save him from this outcome."

Kanako cried for a night in Tsuruko's arms. She had told the elder swordswoman that he was the only man who would ever love her. And she was the only woman who could ever love him. Tsuruko had calmly listened, soothed her, and told her gently but firmly that in time she would find out that that was not true. All the while imploring Kanako to let go of her idea of her brother as her fated husband, and embrace her big brother… best friend and ally… and in the future the uncle to her children. Kanako looked up into Tsuruko's green eyes as the early morning dawn filtered in through the windows of the spartan student's quarters that Kanako had been given during her stay. She saw a faint glint of hope… and humor.

And they had both laughed.

Now, Kanako remembered that laugh, and seemed that Tsuruko did to. This time, they only smiled knowingly, sharing the moment.

Hina smiled, sipping her tea. "Kimiko-san seems much more relaxed now that your husband is helping feed those darling little twins."

Tsuruko nodded. She looked over to the little koi pond where Ko was just finishing up helping feed the babies. He looked over his shoulder, saw Kimiko, and smiled warmly. Obviously happy she was looking visibly less frazzled than when she had first arrived at the party. Kimiko returned the smile, and reached up to touch Ko's shoulder, almost as soon as it had done so Kimiko dropped her hand back to her side. From Tsuruko's vantage point, she could see her husband look over her best friend's shoulder, his smile finding her own, and they waved at each other. Kimiko turned, smiled and waved at Tsuruko.

She should have seen it then.

000

[Hinata City twenty minutes… three stops… first stop Downtown Hinata, second stop Hinata River… third and last stop will be Hinata Mountain…]

Shippu stirred slightly in his sleep on her shoulder, the crane hummed pleasantly in just the way she always found so calming.

"Okaasan, if I'm good for the summer can I get birdie like that one, too?" The little girl piped up.

"I told you not to look at that crazy cosplayer and her stupid bird," that woman hushed her daughter again.

Tsuruko found herself counting the seconds down until she could get off the train before the woman said something to make her say something particularly cutting back. Tsuruko refrained for the sake of the child. Minutely, her hand gripped the hilt of Ikazuchi a bit more tightly…

000

Two months ago...

…. Her hand found itself gripping the hilt of her dreaded Ikazuchi tightly. She always slept with it in reach in a special notch just at bedside. By habit, whenever the phone rang on the nightstand in Tsuruko and Ko's bedroom, if she was asleep Tsuruko always awoke and her hand went to that hilt instinctively.

"... hello?" Ko asked into the phone receiver, he had gotten the phone first. "Kimiko? What's wrong?"

By this point, Tsuruko was sitting up in bed, her sword next to her, eyes on Ko, studying his face in the dark as he talked to her friend. Tsuruko also listened closely.

Ko's eyes widened. "Oh my… what's their temperature?" He nodded. "What did the doctor say?" Another nod. "Yeah, Tsu-chan's right here." Ko handed the phone to his wife. "The twins are really sick; and it sounds like Kimiko is getting it too."

"Hello, Kimi-chan?" Tsuruko said into the receiver.

"... Tsu-chan, please, I need help..." Kimiko coughed over the line, and the anguished cries of both twin baby boys were easily heard.

"How long has it been since the boys' slept?"

"Yesterday morning, for about an hour." Kimiko's voice seemed faint, paper-thin.

"And you, Kimi-chan?" Tsuruko prompted.

"... day before that," Kimiko coughed, then a sound like a stifled sob. "I just don't know what to do anymore… I've tried everything to bring the fever down, make them comfortable, help them sleep… eat… what kind of a mother-"

"We will be there as soon as possible," Tsuruko abruptly cut her friend off, recognizing the dark pool of despair beginning in her best friend's voice.

"R-really? Ko-kun too?" The spark of hope was evident in Kimiko's voice.

"I said we would. I am hanging up the phone now, Kimi-chan. We will be there before you know it." Tsuruko reassured, she handed the receiver back to Ko to hang up.

Ko heard that the line on Kimko's line had not been hung up yet. He raised the phone, "hello, Kimi-chan? Yes, Tsu-chan wasn't just trying to be comforting saying I was coming over too. We're getting dressed now, see you in a few." He hung up the phone, turning back to Tsuruko. "She sounded a bit better after I said we were both coming over."

She nodded, not sure exactly why the exchange between Kimiko and Ko tugged at her awareness. She cast her half-musings aside. "Not a moment to lose then, let us just get dressed and go. Do not worry about an overnight bag, we will figure that out later."

Quickly dressing, Tsuruko and Ko along with a sleepy Shippu were soon in the large passenger van usually used for transporting the dojo's students back and forth from Kyoto City, it was a large vehicle and a nuisance to drive on mountain roads, but it had more than enough room if child seats needed to be quickly put in for transporting the twins to the hospital if the fever got worse.

Ko carefully turned down the side-road which led to where Kimiko lived alone in the family house she had inherited when her grandfather died of old age, and then her parents unexpectedly followed him not more than two years later in a single-car accident involving a tree that had just fallen over due to a storm. Soon after Kimiko and her husband Hiroyuki found out they were expecting twins, his health started to mysteriously decline until the doctors found the answer; pancreatic cancer. Tsuruko shook her head, her best friend had faced so much tragedy so bravely… she had also been a good friend to Ko, not completely freaking out like her other friends and acquaintances had when her husband explained what he did for a living. If there was anything she could do for Kimiko and her family, she would.

As the lights from Kimiko's house came into view, another thought edged its way into Tsuruko's awareness. 'That is the first time he has called her Kimi-chan.' She thought distantly.

000

Later that night...

Tsuruko stood just outside the doorway, silently peering through the open gap between the shoji screen and the door frame. She had taken the liberty of making some tea and some miso soup for Kimiko along with getting some medicine to help Kimiko sleep, silently she had padded her way up the stairs towards the twin's room, when her ki beckoned her to stop. Rather, her ki interacted with her husband's familiar ki. This was normal, but this time something was different about the "color" of the aura. Tsuruko, silent as a shadow, crept closer to the doorway, then looked inside.

Her husband and Kimiko each held one baby in their arms, gently cooing the words of some nursery rhyme to them. The twins were finally asleep after Tsuruko and Ko had assisted with giving them medicine, a bath, and monitoring their condition while Kimiko slept for a few hours. She had woken up, and was elated to find out that the fever had gone down, and the twins had even slept for a time. As babies do, they had awoken, hungry and in need of a diaper change, which Kimiko had assisted Ko with while Tsuruko took it upon herself to make Kimiko something to eat since it was evident her friend had not eaten in at least half a day.

Tsuruko smiled a bit. How many times had she imagined her and Ko in a similar scene? But sadly, it was not in the kami's plans for them. But why had her ki stopped her at reacting to the color of Ko's ki? Knowing she was unseen, Tsuruko continued to study her husband and Kimiko's face. The look on their faces… the set of their shoulders, the warmth of their words to the twins who were drifting off to sleep… the color of Ko's ki, the "feel" of it so similar to those moments when he held her in his arms at night after making love to her, trying for a baby…

Tsuruko's breath drew inward sharply. She blinked. Her ki wasn't interacting with Ko's and to a lesser extent Kimiko's. It was reacting to them in opposition. Why? She looked again at how much like a family they looked and understood.

Somehow she suppressed the sudden urge to scream and run into the room between Ko and Kimiko.

000

A week later…

Tsuruko was hardly dumb nor naive. She trusted her ki and her instincts. A few days after going over to help Kimiko, the twins improved remarkably and the cold Kimiko had also cleared up. Tsuruko and Ko talked to the young mother at least three times a day on the phone to make certain things were improving. The next day Kimiko asked if they would like to come over for dinner as a way to show her thanks to them. The dinner would be in three days, just after Ko got back home from a work assignment; a group of developers was working to clear a former funeral home of any hostile spirits before tearing it down for a new construction.

Again, Tsuruko was hardly dumb. She carefully watched her husband and his ki, and also she read between the words Kimiko spoke over the phone; listening to the tone, word choice, and how she breathed-especially when the conversation turned to Ko. Tsuruko also followed up with Ko after he himself spoke on the phone to Kimiko. A few times, Ko had answered the phone when Tsuruko had suddenly found an excuse to go to the bathroom. She had listened to her husband's conversation with her friend through the bathroom door, and analyzed the data from it.

As she and Ko arrived at Kimiko's house and saw the now happy twins playing in their shared playpen, Tsuruko noted the changes in her husband's ki and how they interacted with Kimiko's. She looked on at the animated conversation that Kimiko was having with Ko about how the boys were doing that day, briefly oblivious to her presence, as it seemed in that house for the first time in a long time all was right and in harmony. Time seemed to grow more distant for Tsuruko then, she almost seemed to go into a meditative state as she somberly watched them.

During her evaluation since they had come over the week before in the middle of the night, Tsuruko had cautioned herself to remain calm, that the connection her ki had observed had been mistaken, or simply a fleeting effect of compassion and friendship, but standing there at that moment, Tsuruko knew it was neither of those things.

Dinner passed pleasantly enough, and Tsuruko had maintained a brave face and poise as she and Ko drove home. Once the front door to their home was closed; Tsuruko spoke: "You love those boys, Ko-kun, do you not?"

"Yes, I do." Ko smiled a touch, clearly not thinking, just answering honestly.

"Something you cannot have with me."

He looked up, snapped out of his memories of, for him, a happy evening. "Wait-what, Tsu-chan?"

Tsuruko smiled at her husband sadly. "I can see what is happening, even if you cannot. You will in time, though."

Ko swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. His eyes suddenly widened. "Tsu-chan, nothing is going on between me and Kimi-ch-kimiko-san." He blushed.

Tsuruko chuckled sadly. "I *know* you two have not betrayed me. But what about in… five months… or five years?"

"It's… it's not like that, not like that at all. I'm just helping our friend out with her kids, she needs help…"

Ko was starting to lose his composure at this point, so Tsuruko took him into her arms. She whispered into his ear now, "I know she does… and I know you see two baby boys who need a father, and a great lady in need of a husband."

Ko shook his head, trying to drive away the searing, tearing truth he felt in his soul at Tsuruko's words. "No, no… no!"

Tsuruko steeled herself for what she must say next. It would be so easy to turn back from this, to ignore the situation developing right in front of her eyes, but she knew she needed to do this for Kimiko, her babies, for Ko, and even for herself.

"Ko-kun," Tsuruko said a bit louder. "I can feel it in your ki. The ki of a father protecting and caring for his cubs. How then can things continue as they are now with you and me dropping by when we can to help her with little Satoshi and Nobuo? She needs someone who can be there more. And when you are there to help, tell me how long will you be able to ignore the call-the beginnings of which I can already see and feel-to take Kimi-chan to bed after you two have set those two little ones down to sleep?"

"But I love you, Tsu-chan! You're my wife! You! And only you!" Ko said to her, perhaps a bit more loud than he had intended.

"I love you too, my husband." Tsuruko smiled, kissing him tenderly on the lips. "But I also love my friend Kimiko, and I never want there to be any guilt or betrayal between the three of us."

"Then… what are we going to do?" Ko asked, despondently. "I cannot be a father to them-and," he blushed sharply, "-and help Kimi-," he stopped fighting, "Kimi-chan as well as be here with you, as I should…"

"We will talk to Kimi-chan," said Tsuruko simply, reassuringly. "I will confront her with the truth I can see within her ki, as I have with you."

"Then..?"

"The only thing we can do," Tsuruko said sadly, "start the process of me releasing you to join her household."

Ko choked back tears. "That means we will go our separate ways. Is there no other way? Something? Anything?"

"I have known Kimi-chan since elementary school; she could scarcely share crayons let alone a husband." Tsuruko replied ruefully, "nor have I ever been able to share even crayons." A ghost of a smirk on her lips. "And certainly not a husband."

"This… this cannot be…" Ko shook his head. Were his choices not to be a father to two boys who needed a father, and a woman who plainly needed help-*his* help, or lose his dear Tsuruko? He knew, rhetorically, almost everyone would tell him to shoot down this proposal, stay with his wife, and simply send friendly good wishes and assistance to Kimiko and her children when he could; but that was not *all* he could do for them, now was it?

Tsuruko favored her husband with a knowing look at his brow furrowing, working through this mutual problem of theirs. "Your heart has already started the process with you taking responsibility for those boys, in time it will complete, and then your loins will call to you to become one with her. It is nature, after all."

The two were silent for a time, holding each other in the doorway of their home.

"Tsu-chan, what you're describing, you know that's just another way to say 'divorce,'" Ko muttered sadly.

"Let me have my euphemisms, at least for tonight, dear." Tsuruko whispered as she embraced Ko, kissing him passionately. Ko returned the kiss, silently the couple resolved to make the most of each moment left to them.

000

The next morning Tsuruko called Kimiko and asked if she and Ko could come over for tea. The young widow said it would be great to have them over for tea. Tea turned into lunch and then into dinner. No large meal was prepared, only soup and crackers as tea was silently and hesitantly sipped. Tsuruko, in a moment that she knew would haunt her for years to come, used her words-many of them very pointed-over the course of several hours to walk Kimiko through what she had seen beginning in her home between her, Ko, and the twins. Kimiko denied this vehemently. She denied it until she broke down crying on the floor, utterly helpless. Tsuruko marked what she was doing as her honor as a woman and as her best friend denying with every fiber of her being that she wanted… needed Ko. Tsuruko's ki ticked; it was not just honor it was what Kimiko felt was morally correct.

The swordswoman had sighed, thinking: 'Too often Japanese culture idolizes the devoted widow rearing her children after the departure of her beloved husband, but in most of those cultural ideals there are grandparents, sometimes great grandparents, and extended family to help. Kimi-chan has no one. And I will not have my best friend agree to a fast re-marriage to just anyone...' Kimiko's clan had always been a small, isolated one with few children or extended kin who weren't dead or beyond reach. And on the matter of re-marriage, Tsuruko shuddered to imagine if someone unsuited to young children or a woman of Kimiko's temperament were to come into the house. Kimiko was emotional, but also prone to flustration, forgetfulness and clumsiness. Hiroyuki, her departed husband, had been patient, loving, supportive and forgiving of his wife's eccentricities. In fact, Kimiko's only real talent in the traditional sense of the word was her uncanny ability to fix and build motor scooters.

In that moment, Ko had come to the rescue, he was the first to go to Kimiko on the floor and envelope her in his arms. Soon, Tsuruko followed suit to help comfort her friend. Ko had told Kimiko that he too fought this inside him, and part of him still wanted to fight it, but he knows and can feel what is developing between them and the children. Tsuruko then asked, finally, for Kimiko to look in her eyes. She told Kimiko there had never been any need of lies between them before; so let them not start now. Kimiko's eyes were still full of tears, but she nodded silently, then after opening and closing her mouth several times, she forced her heart to be true and admit those thoughts about her and Ko; truly making Ko a father.

After shedding some tears themselves, and clutching hands still, but also holding Kimiko's; Ko and Tsuruko discussed with Kimiko what would happen next.

000

Letting out a sigh Tsuruko squeezed her katana's handle once again. Though she couldn't use it, her weapon did offer a little comfort, once again that woman's eyes were on her 'this is beginning to bore me,' thought the swordswoman. Though she herself bore her no ill will she did allow her mind to wander (only a little though) about how many ways she could 'deal' with this insufferable woman from where she was situated.

While not trying to, Tsuruko once again caught the woman's side-long glance. Well, really it was more of a glare. 'Such disrespect,' Tsuruko thought, 'action must be taken.'

"Excuse me, ma'am," Tsuruko called over with utmost kindness. "Is there something I can do for you? You keep looking over here at me, I cannot help but think you wish to ask me a question?" Tsuruko smiled sweetly.

The little girl looked up, back and forth between her mother and Tsuruko.

The woman glared. "Who do you think you are? Parading around dressed like that, with a fake sword, and a bird like you're some kind of character in a samurai drama? You're only poisoning impressionable minds, you know."

Tsuruko giggled. "Well, madame, I 'parade' around like this because I *am* a samurai." Tsuruko held up Ikazuchi, "this is a real katana; which I have a permit for," she fished around in her gi, deliberately showing off proudly that she bound her breasts, retrieving her modest purse, she opened it and effortlessly showed the permit which included a picture of her, prominently printed on the top of the card was the emblem of the Japanese National Police, as well as the Prefectural police of Kyoto. "And the fact that I bring my 'pet' along with me should not concern your delicate sensibilities nearly as much as the young women bringing toy poodles around in their purses as a fashion accessory."

The woman simply replied: "You're a menace," then turned back to stare straight ahead.

The little girl continued to stare at Tsuruko and Shippu in appreciation, which prompted another warm smile from the swordswoman.

"Turn around!" The woman hissed, roughly grabbing and turning her daughter around.

"Owie!" the daughter protested, some from pain and some from being taken away from something she found absolutely fascinating.

"Shut up!" the woman hissed.

[Hinata City… Hinata City Mountain stop approaching… please gather all personal belongings and, if standing, please continue to hold on to the hand rails and overhead supports for your safety.]

Tsuruko allowed herself a small, amused smile. One of the first genuine moments of mirth she had since that clan council meeting that had set her on the journey she is now on, and only served to confirm the journey that had just ended...

000

One month before...

It was late at night; very few people were around except for the family guards keeping a watchful eye. Giving a gentle nod to one of the guards, Tsuruko accompanied by her husband, saunter effortlessly through the gardens of the Aoyama compound with one purpose in mind; a place known only to those who have earned the highest of honours... the recess council meeting room.

Hearing murmurs emanating from the hidden room and stopping at the entrance to the room; Tsuruko stops at the door and tenses, her husband quickly responds by squeezing her hand gently and with a slight tremor in his voice asks: "Are you sure you're okay going through with this?"

Turning to face the man she fell in love with Tsuruko offers a weak smile and answers simply: "I cannot say that I am enthusiastic with going through with this, but as we both know it is what must be." She could feel the mixed feelings from Ko's ki aura; his deep love for her, but also the developing love for Kimiko and her sons, and his natural male desire to protect and nurture them.

Pulling Tsuruko into a hug; Ko murmurs a few supportive words in the swords woman's ear and releases her a few moments later, then whispered: "Ready?"

Even with her years of training and discipline Tsuruko finds difficulty in voicing her reply; merely nods and reaches for the door to the hidden chamber. What had appeared to be a wall with the wave of a hand clicked open to reveal a narrow space within. Tsuruko and Ko went inside and found themselves in a dark hallway that turned immediately to the right in front of them. The door closed silently behind them and the couple, not needing any light to see the way, expertly navigated their way around the sharp corners as the passageway zig-zaged around until they reached their destination. Through instinct and experience they avoided probably a dozen traps. After a few minutes, they reached their destination.

Entering the chamber they separate to their individual areas. With her usual stoic but elegant features Tsuruko visually traverses those in attendance; seated at the large but low built table in the chamber were the heads of the four branch families: Daiki, Haruki, Kenta and Takehiko. And finally...

'Uuuggghhh Aunt Hime,' Tsuruko thought in sour resignation. Her eyes continued to dance around, studying the faces of those assembled. 'Mother and… but where is she?' Tsuruko thought.

Almost in response to her mental question, appearing from nowhere stood Hina who held an amused smile with a cackle, "I am here child."

Used to the older woman's 'games' Tsuruko gently turns and positions herself to give her a deep bow. "I am glad to see you were able to attend, Elder Hina." Tsuruko looked around where Hina stood, "I see Kanako-san is not here."

"Home visiting her parents; allowing her cat to give my daughter-in-law a good pestering." Hina smirked.

Sensing something off in the Aoyama samurai, Hina then spoke with a whispered tone that left no room for debate: "Come and meet me in a few weeks dear, ALONE; I am sure we will have much to discuss then."

Tsuruko nodded, numbly. Truth be told, she longed to pour her heart out to the old woman right then, but duty to clan and school prevented that.

Taking her seat next to her husband and Honored Place as interim head of the clan Tsuruko knelt and addressed the school's 'elite'.

Tsuruko took a deep, steadying breath. "My husband and I welcome you-the honoured elders of the clan-and thank you for answering our call at such short notice."

Voicing her distaste for the requirement of answering the call of someone she deemed unworthy Hime called out impatiently from her place across the large table: "Tell me then Tsuruko; why have we the elders been summoned?"

Disgusted with the way her daughter was spoken to, Chisako scowled. Such rudeness, and by her sister no less! Taking a quarter moment to collect herself, Chisako replies before her daughter could decide on a withering comment to her Aunt: "Who are you to question the clan leader, Hime?"

With a smirk at having been successful in goading the situation, Hime replies, "I may speak in any tone I feel is relevant to the situation, unless you believe that I serve you now!"

As normal as the 'family feud' is played out for the umpteenth time; Tsuruko knows better than to get involved and just to let them burn off their energy, but this time with all that she had gone through recently and for what was to come the Aoyama swordswoman anxiously grabs and squeezes her husband's hand under the table for moral support.

'Here we go again,' thought Ko who was suddenly broken from his brief slight amusement with this gesture; in her defense it was very rare for Tsuruko to need any moral support but knowing how hard the situation was on him to leave the one he loved for another; but he had someone waiting for him whereas she did not after this battle was fought.

With an audible cough Ko sought to break the stalemate that his mother-in-law and aunt-in-law were having.

Suddenly a loud crash was heard; causing all in attendance to turn and stop whatever they were doing to see what had happened.

With a domineering voice born of many years of running a busy Inn and more recently an all-girls dormitory, Hina spoke out: "IF YOU TWO CHILDREN ARE NOT FINISHED YOU ARE FREE TO LEAVE AND ALLOW US GROWN-UPS TO HAVE A CALM AND RATIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT WHATEVER THIS MATTER IS ABOUT!"

With an audible gulp everyone stared at Hina who had both hands flat with palms down just below the level at what used to be the ornate oak table-top, several members in attendance decided that brushing splinters off of their hakamas was of the utmost importance.

A few of the branch family members each unknowingly had the same thought 'shit, we've woken the blessed sleeping dragon!' or some thoughts along those lines.

"Are we ready to begin now?" questioned Hina.

Everyone nodded but kept silent, afraid of poking the bear.

Ko, to his testament in handling tense situations, was the first to speak, though his tone was reserved: "Tsuruko and I have convened the meeting to discuss a matter of seriousness that is of great importance to us and, ultimately, the future of the clan." Though the last part was sorrowful Ko was able to hide it.

'Barely,' Tsuruko thought wistfully.

Before he could continue Tsuruko decided that she should speak and not leave it up to Ko on his own. This was, after all, her plan from the start. She loved him passionately, of course, but he always seemed to find a way in everything to bring out the worst way of looking at things no matter the subject at hand. This had its uses in demon hunting, but ordinary clan meetings could be a bit problematic. 'He just doesn't have much in the way of tact' with an amused smirk as Tsuruko gave him one last affectionate look before proceeding.

"Thank you, Ko."

Ko replied with a nod knowing that Tsuruko was never one to back down from a fight.

With an elegant but stoic face Tsuruko began by speaking clearly but softly, "Ko and I; though we found and love one another have decided from this moment on to part ways in our marriage."

"WHAT," was the unanimous outcry, as murmurs quickly become more audible as the council began their deliberating amongst themselves.

'Even Aunt Hime,' wondered Tsuruko as she looked at the council's reactions, 'I did not expect her to be concerned… what is her game here?''

Chisako had been momentarily stunned but with her daughter in mind questioned "You mean divorce? But why?"

Hina was dumbfounded; having been the one to introduce Tsuruko to Ko a decade ago was unable to speak as she digested the news.

Ko, though, through the storm of emotions enveloping him in that moment. While he was hardly naive and knew full well what Tsuruko's plan entailed, in this moment it all became too real. After all of these years, he was going to leave her and join another woman's household. He remembered a lot of things involving his lovely Tsuruko then; their walks in the mountains, going out to dinner at that little cafe in Nagano near Lake Kizaki, and how she held him at night when he came home from his labors exorcising demons. Ko let out a few stray tears, but refused to wipe them as testament to his love for Tsuruko.

Tsuruko was not in much better state; she barely managed to keep her voice level as she replied softly, "it is not a decision we have come to lightly," though she choked a few times she began to regale them of the story of their friend Kimiko and her children's plight.

Sometime later; Tsuruko and Ko had explained the details leading to their decision for their separation.

The only sound to be heard after the married couple's explanation is the sound of hushed voices as the council begin to discuss the ramifications of their discussion. Looking on at the select group the married couple can only hope they would accept and support their decision on the matter.

Hime is the first to speak looking like the cat that caught the mouse; with an amused tone she spoke evenly, "I cannot agree to this choice Tsuruko, in all the years and generations of the Aoyama line that have existed never has divorce been mentioned let alone considered by even the lowliest of branch families let alone the main!"

These words got a number of those attending to rise to their feet, though they could say nothing in response as she was correct they were only branch families and though they did have links to the main family they had no real clout.

A slender but able Haruki remorsefully added: "I as a member of the council understand your plight and your friend's needs, Tsuruko, but divorce will tarnish our lineage!"

Next to speak was Takehiko a well-built man whose power in battle was second to only a select few in the world. He had a strong position on the council; the strong man sorrowfully spoke carefully, "Haruki and Hime are correct, though I am loathe to admit it I too cannot support our clan head-even an interim one-to go through with a divorce; however noble the purpose of such a dissolution of union."

Kenta was the next to speak, he was a capable but not an overly accomplished warrior but as a tactician he stood out as one of the wisest men in the family spoke next: "Tsuruko, Ko, I completely understand that for your friends health and wellbeing this is one of the most noble moves," stopping to consider his next words carefully Kenta eyes the duo and shakes his head unable to find a better way to say what he thought. He paused for a moment, then tried again. "Though as a tactical move in this modern age the arts have dwindled down to a very select few and as such am unable to support any move that would jeopardize the family and its heritage."

Daiki was the next one to voice his opinion. Never one to mince his words, a quiet man who always did what was asked and was extremely true to his word spoke with reluctance after nodding slowly. "I have watched the two of you grow as I have on my travels, I have come to respect your abilities as warriors, in dealing with demons, spirits and such and am proud to call you my clansmen. I cannot agree to the family head being a divorced one for the sake of honour."

Chisako is left speechless after hearing the clans' choice on the matter; after a short period she is able to collect her thoughts. Finally, she spoke with clarity and emotion. "My daughter and son in law, though it pains me to hear the council's deliberations I do understand their reluctance in regards to our families' shared heritage and continued success," beginning to choke back sobs as tears began to fall unashamedly. A couple of sobs wracked her frame for a moment. Then, "Hina we have not heard your thoughts on the matter?"

Opening her mouth to speak Hime quickly recoils as Hina gives her a stare that dares her to say one word.

Turning back to the couple Hina eyes them both deeply as if she is trying to gauge their seriousness in the matter and takes a moment to ponder, then explains /questions "You two really know how to throw a spanner in the works, don't you?" as she quickly goes into maniacal laughter.

Much to the council's disbelief at Hina's ability to laugh at such a serious matter; they all have the same thought 'extremely dangerous and has more than just a few screws loose,' though not one of them dares to voice such an opinion. After all, the last clan member to do that had promptly found themselves tossed out of the building and into a tree.

"I… take it you have a solution, Elder Hina?" asked the bemused Ko.

Hina stops her laughter at his obviously unamused tone. "Oh my oh my… My apologies dear child but the solution is simple, I am just amused at the amount of so called 'elders' here and not one of them can see the solution staring them right in the face." The Urashima matriarch paused for dramatic effect. The old woman smiled. "The solution is the one person who is not here... Motoko."

000

While the feeling of the clan was against it, she had exercised her prerogative as interim head of the clan and the school. The clan agreed to disagree, on the record, with the decision, and warned them that any ill fortune that befell them for this proposal would be completely on their heads. Kimiko had been informed, and her elation and joy was blinding through her ki, though she tried to be somber out of respect for Tsuruko. Plans were made. She and Ko had gone off for one final vacation/farewell at Lake Kizaki. They returned home. Ko took a leave of absence/reduced availability from his "job." The divorce was filed and speedily finalized, family registers corrected, and Ko moved into Kimiko's house. He and Kimiko assured Tsuruko they would be sleeping in separate rooms for the foreseeable future. After her emotional farewell to Ko, as their relationship changed-had to change-to being good friends again, Tsuruko gave him and Kimiko her wish; "do not build a wall around your hearts on account of what brought you here. Just let things grow naturally. It will also be good for the twins; that kind of relationship between you two…" Tsuruko's voice choked back tears then, "... that kind of love."

Motoko had been informed in a phone call. Chisako had been there with her as she talked to her little sister. Motoko, to her credit, had been genuinely sorry to hear. The pronouncements against men in general had been kept to a minimum, and Motoko had asked if she could come home to "help out."

That, for Tsuruko, had been funny. She had told her dear sister that such a kind gesture would not be necessary as she was certain they would see each other before too long.

She had been looking out the window again, the train station for Hinata Mountain was plainly in view. Time to go.

Tsuruko mused upon her predicament 'My my that was quicker than announced,' a bit annoyed at having her reflections disturbed. Exhaling slowly, she could feel that woman's eyes upon on her once again after their little exchange earlier. Tsuruko considered things as she felt Shippu stir and move his head to rub against his masters' in a placating manner.

Contemplating her situation, she just knew that woman would speak out of turn again, Tsuruko's face took on a slightly devious smirk as she petted Shippu's head in thanks for his continued support; she knew that carrying a blade in modern times meant that she could not really use it. At least not in public; but having made her decision she murmured something incomprehensible to human ears, unless they were trained or gifted, into the bird's ear and watched as the mother and child disembarked.

Grabbing her light travel bag Tsuruko exited the train car several passengers behind the duo, noticing them step out of the station; Tsuruko heard them once more.

"Okaasan, please can I get a birdie like that one, too?" The little girl piped up.

"I told you not to ask for any stupid bird," said the woman trying to hush her daughter once again. Noticing they were exiting in the opposite direction to where her ultimate destination lay the swords woman continued on her way until the duo turned the street corner proceeding away from her. Knowing then that she would be safe Tsuruko commanded, "now," softly to Shippu.

Quickly taking flight the ever faithful crane spotted his intended target and swooped in from high above, silently and with precision Shippu honed in on his target as they continued their little mother-daughter squabble; stopping just behind the women he quickly pecks the mother's head.

"OW!" Screamed the mother who turned to identify what had harmed her only to see nothing. "What… WHO was that?!," cried the mother, asking not just her daughter but also the passerbys who were eyeing her with caution and questioning expressions.

Her daughter looked up at her with concern and asked: "What's wrong Okaa-san?"

"I don't know!" Screamed the mother who was visibly upset, her head turning every which way to find her assailant.

The mother looking around suddenly cried "AWWW! Again!? …who's there?" She looked around intent on giving whoever it was a piece of her mind and taste of her purse. Seeing nothing she looked down at her daughter who was nowhere near tall enough to have hit her on the head.

*PECK**PECK*

"AWWW, DAMMIT!" The irate mother shouted, looking around desperately, not spotting anyone nearly close enough to have attacked her. The only thing she did find was random strangers trying to ignore her, clearly thinking she was crazy and a menace of some kind.

Finding no one the woman yelled, "let's go! It's not safe here!" She pulled her daughter's arm as they headed towards 'safety.'

This happened several more times before the crane heard a familiar whistle. Shippu, who had repeatedly flew back up high as it continued its assault on the woman who dared insult his master, grinned to himself in his manner with satisfaction at his beak-work. Setting off in search of his beloved master; quickly finding her, the crane swoops in and lands upon her outstretched arm.

"Is your task completed?" An amused Tsuruko asked.

"QUAW!" replies a happy Shippu who opened his beak to catch the treat his owner had just thrown him as a reward.

"Excellent," Tsuruko replied with amusement. "Let us continue our quest to test Motoko-han." Enjoying the sensation of his head being petted Shippu; replies "kue-kue," contentedly as he jumps to a slightly different position upon Tsuruko's right shoulder.

Beginning their journey in the direction of the street that she recognized from the map she had whose name matched the mailing address for the Hinata Inn, Tsuruko spotted a downcast, slender young man wearing a leg-cast who is seemingly lost in thought as he scampers across-or as best as he could-attempt to cross the road with the use of crutches. She noticed this as a red sports car advanced towards him seemingly unnoticed, its driver flailing wildly at what appeared to be a turtle merrily riding his vehicle's front wind-shield, blocking his view.

000

TO BE CONTINUED. See you next chapter, which will be the Burning Blades arc/episode 25 with alterations. Heavy emphasis on the alterations, as it will not just be a rehash of events we are all familiar with in canon. Thanks for reading and many thanks for any reviews, comments, favorites, follows and all that good stuff. We hope you enjoy this story.


	2. Chapter 2

"Reforged" - Chapter 2

By Y-PenDraig and MakKeiUra

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHORS' NOTE ON CONTINUITY: This story uses a mixed manga/anime continuity that starts to branch off from the Burning Blades arc/TV series episode 25. Simply stated, Keitaro's initial arrival at the Hinata Inn and the order he meets the girls is the same as it is in the TV series, as well as Granny Hina's departure from the same. The increased presence of Shirai and Haitani as well as Kentaro Sakata is also as it was in the TV series, as well as Mei, and Moe-Chan. Beyond that, events that occur in the manga should be considered completely canon except for ages; we'll keep to the TV series there.

INTRODUCTION: Y-PenDraig and I welcome you, the reader, to this story. It grew out of discussion between the two of us about Tsuruko Aoyama and a shared desire to tell a good, long story involving her. The regular rating will be T for Teen for the story proper, but owing to the limey/lemon idea that kind of inspired this madness, you will see omake side-stories posted independently that are rated M for Mature.

000

Keitaro Urashima crossed the street at the crosswalk, always glancing up to make certain the crossing sign was still illuminated as he hurried across the intersection as best he could with his leg in a cast. Inwardly cursing his luck, broken leg, and the clothes he had to wear on his discharge day from the hospital; unfortunately it was the only clean item that had been packed for him when he was admitted. He was rethinking his polite refusal of Haruka and Kitsune's offer to help walk him back to the Hinata (probably also stopping at a bar for a drink on the way), Keitaro had issued his refusal with the explanation to the Hinata Inn's resident fox that he needed someone with some authority (mischievous though it was) at the Inn to supervise his youngest residents with Motoko still at school and Naru being nowhere to be seen on that morning. Haruka, Keitaro knew, needed to be working in the tea shop as literally right then was the busiest time of the week; and this month had not been kind to the shop when it came to paying customers. On the matter of Naru, he and the brunette had not even said one word to each other since she had last visited him in the hospital…

His head shot up at the sound of screeching tires, somehow he *knew* the sound of the vehicle before he saw the red sports convertible careening wildly towards him. Keitaro briefly recalled that hackneyed saying of seeing one's life flash before their eyes. This happened for him now as it dawned upon him that there was no way he could get himself out of the way in time. Even his semi-famous immortality could not save him this time as he was literally a sitting duck in the path of (he could see now) Kentaro Sakata's out of control vehicle. Keitaro had a fragment of a moment to prepare himself, and that last images were him sustaining his injury just after *finally* getting into Tokyo U (which would be a contributing factor to ending his life today), Naru leaving him alone after he confessed his love for her without a single word, and the fact that Kentaro (someone who he actually considered somewhat a friend, these days) was about to run him down because a certain hot springs turtle that Mutsumi had gifted to himself and Naru really, really wanted a hug from Sakata and decided the best way to get his attention was to hug his wind-shield and cause the poor playboy to lose control of the wheel.

A figure lanced out beside him, to Keitaro's panicked mind all his eyes registered was a blob of white, red, and black as he heard a katana being drawn and a ki slice issued around him.

It was over in a second. The Secret Technique Evil Splitting Spirit Sword had cut Kentaro Sakata's automobile in half, leaving the shocked (but relieved) rich boy and tea house helper sitting on his bottom in the middle of the road, holding his steering wheel.

"Ah…!" Keitaro breathed in relief, happy he made certain to use the bathroom twice before going through the hospital's discharge process.

"... the hell?!" Sakata managed as various pedestrians could only gawk at the cleanly bisected remnants of his vehicle lying neatly in the intersection.

"That was the Evil Splitting Spirit Sword," Keitaro said, now noting the tall gi, hakama, and jingasa wearing figure next to him. 'When did Motoko-chan get a jingasa?' Keitaro thought as his brain clicked, yes indeed he was alive. "Wow, way cool, thank you so much, Motoko-chan! You saved my life!"

He heard a giggle beside him, was about to wonder at the tenor of the voice. "My, my, I did not know vehicles in Tokyo have taken to attacking people these days," the woman raised up the brim of her travelling hat. "And… excuse me kind sir, but did you happen to say Motoko, by chance?"

Keitaro, now looking at the tall, beautiful woman gaped. "... ah, yeah. I thought you were her considering what you just did… thank you so much, you saved my life!"

She nodded politely, gave a short bow. "Yes, you already said that, sir. And you are quite welcome." She turned to Sakata who was gingerly getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "And you, sir, are you injured? Do you need medical attention?"

"I'm great, thank you, ma'am," he flashed a perfect smile, he turned to Keitaro. "You good, Keitaro?"

"Uh-huh!" Keitaro nodded back.

"Myuu!" Tama-chan floated around them.

"You!" Sakata glared at the flying hot springs turtle. "I almost killed your best friend because of you!" He jabbed a finger over to where Tama-chan floated, the terrapin looked over to Keitaro.

"Myuu…?" Tama asked quietly.

"Yes, Tama-chan," Keitaro said, "that was very dangerous; you should never, ever block someone's view when they're driving a car."

The little turtle made some apologetic sounds.

"Squawk! Squawk!" A crane flew down and perched itself on the woman's shoulder. She cocked her head to one side as she listened to another series of squawks from the crane. "Shippu-kun says the turtle is very sorry, and did not realize what he was doing."

"Well, great," Sakata shrugged, then to Tama: "I mean it, Tama-chan, don't do that again!"

The turtle only nodded. Silently he hovered over to take his usual spot on Keitaro's head.

Sakata sighed. By wordless agreement, the three moved out of the intersection. Fortunately, the woman's expert katana slices had deposited the halves of Kentaro's sports car neatly into respective parallel parking spaces on either side of the road, so traffic was not obstructed. The playboy started furiously dialing numbers on his cell phone as some people walked by, others watched, while others stole a glance or two at what had happened while they went about their business.

"Oh my!" The woman exclaimed with a smile. "Where are my manners? I have not even introduced myself yet."

Keitaro chuckled. "And where are my manners, too?" He bowed as low as he could in apology.

She smiled. "You have an excuse. My name is Tsuruko… pleased to meet you," she bowed low, Keitaro once again did his best to return the greeting. Tsuruko held up a hand to prevent Keitaro from speaking.

"And you, kind sir, thought I was Motoko before you saw that I was not, and you also correctly named one of the God's Cry School's Secret Techniques" she smiled. "Might I guess that you are Mr. Keitaro Urashima, the manager of the Hinata Inn?"

"Y-yes," Keitaro nodded, blushing. "Very pleased to meet you, ah…?"

"Aoyama is my last name."

Keitaro's eyes widened.

Tsuruko nodded, smiling at the realization in the young man's eyes. "Yes… I am her older sister."

She turned then to Sakata. "Good to meet you as well," she bowed, "and your name?"

Sakata laughed. "Kentaro Sakata, likewise Aoyama-sama." He bowed in response.

"Have you called the police and your insurance company, Sakata-san?" Tsuruko looked around, wondering if anyone had already at least called the traffic police by now.

Sakata shook his head.

"Well why the hell not, Kentaro?" Keitaro asked sharply.

"Dude, you really think I want *this* to go on my Dad's insurance?!"

Keitaro nodded soberly, from what little Sakata had told about his family in passing conversations, they would get along famously with his parents in the 'not getting it; do not care' department. "Point taken," Keitaro slumped his shoulders, once again trying to properly adjust to needing crutches. "So what's next for you today, then?"

Sakata laughed at the irony. "I was just cruising around town since it's my day off from the tea shop. I noticed Naru getting on a bus with a bunch of other girls who I have never seen her with before. Before Tama-chan said 'hello' I was actually heading towards the hospital to see if I could give you a ride home."

"Ah, thanks!" Keitaro smiled.

"And I was hoping for info because I want to ask Naru out next week," Sakata flashed his perfect toothy smile.

"Ugh," Keitaro slumped his shoulders again, feeling the sting. "You never give up, do you?"

"A playboy never gives up!" Sakata proudly straightened.

'Neither do the insane,' Keitaro thought grimly.

"Once again, I apologize about your means of conveyance, Sakata-san," Tsuruko spoke clearly, obviously apologetic, but it was clear that it would not bear too heavily on her conscience.

"Awh," Sakata gave a good nature wave of his hand. "I have another one, think nothing of it, Tsuruko-sama."

"So who did you call, anyway?" Keitaro asked, honestly curious.

"The manager of a wrecker company that my Uncle owns," the rich boy commented, "he owes me a favor or three; they'll clean this up and give me a ride home." Just then, a large truck pulled up beside them, honking its loud horn. "There they are now!" Sakata bowed deeply to Tsuruko and Keitaro, "catch you two later!" He turned around briefly, waved at the driver of the large vehicle, then he turned back to Keitaro.

"You know, Keitaro…"

"Yeah?" Keitaro asked.

"That bus Naru got on said Kyoto, private charter too."

Keitaro sighed. "Thanks for the info, dude."

The K University student then turned his attention to Tama-chan, he pointed a finger. "Naughty, naughty, Tama-chan!"

The little turtle hung his head in shame before snuggling ever deeper into Keitaro's hair.

Sakata only nodded, satisfied and deeply relieved that things had ended so well today, then he turned around (but not before giving Tsuruko another deep bow in gratitude) to give the driver orders to begin cleaning up the remnants of his sports car.

Keitaro looked up, he forced a smile onto his face for Tsuruko's benefit. It was not too difficult, as Tsuruko was easily one of the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on before. "Tsuruko-sama, might I offer to take you to lunch, to show my gratitude for you saving my life?" He tried to bow as best he could, fortunately Tama-chan myuu'd and assisted with the bow from his perch on the top of Keitaro's head.

Tsuruko laughed pleasantly. "I would be honored, Manager-san. No doubt you have many questions about how I know who you are."

Keitaro chuckled. "I do. Say, I know a good beef bowl place on the next block…" Keitaro started to trail off when he realized he was asking a woman of obvious wealth, property, and refinement to go lunch with him to a beef bowl stand. He felt his face flush in embarrassment and shame at his faux pas.

She smiled radiantly. "I would be honored to join you, Manager-san."

000

"So, Tsuruko-sama, how did you know who I was?" Keitaro sipped on some tea carefully. He had just finished his beef bowl. While very hungry, he had forced himself to eat slowly and properly so as not to seem uncouth to his guest. Tsuruko ate elegantly, but without much of any air about her save for the natural grace she possessed.

"Well, for one, I know your grandmother." She broke a cracker in her hand, and fed it to the crane perched on her shoulder.

Keitaro blinked. "What, y-y-you know Granny?"

"Why do you think my mother and I approved of Motoko-han moving down here when she was only fourteen?" Tsuruko chuckled. "We knew and trusted Granny Hina; and when we learned she decided to go on her grand world tour with your younger sister, we knew she would leave the Hinata Inn in good hands."

Keitaro blushed, panic reaching up his spine. He reminded himself about his bad luck, and that old saying about if something sounds too good to be true, it probably was. Keitaro warned himself that Tsuruko's kind manner with him would most likely melt away as she started to recount the various things he feared Motoko said to her mother and sister whenever she called home or sent a letter.

Tsuruko smiled. "I thank you for taking such good care of Motoko-han."

"Ah, you are most welcome!"

"Even if she can be… most difficult at times towards men." Tsuruko lowered her voice a bit.

"Oh," Keitaro laughed nervously. "It's nothing, really."

"You are so tolerant and forgiving of that girl," Tsuruko smiled. "Tell me, why was Sakata-san the only one who seemed to want to help you home from the hospital?"

"Right now, with Motoko-chan in school and Narsuegawa-san just gone, the only adult at home is Mitsune Konno and Haruka Urashima; my au-er, cousin. They both asked to walk me home, but I refused and asked them both to supervise things at the Inn and tea shop until I made it home." Keitaro's voice started off quiet, then only grew more quiet during his reply to Tsuruko.

She nodded. 'He is so sad,' she thought.

Keitaro opened his mouth, almost seemed about to speak, then closed it again.

Tsuruko finished her own beef bowl and then resumed sipping on her tea, she smiled at Keitaro but said nothing.

'I am just going to ask, might as well,' he thought.

Tsuruko almost seemed to sense this thought as she raised an eyebrow as Keitaro mentally prepared himself.

"I really must apologize, Tsuruko-sama."

"Oh, why so Manager-san?"

"I… can only imagine how I must sound in Motoko-chan's letters." Keitaro squirmed in his seat, almost seeming to will himself to somehow disappear into his seat.

Tsuruko put her hand up. "Her attitude towards men is nothing new, I assure you, while Motoko-han does speak the truth; sometimes her mother and I must view her statements through the lens of how she currently chooses to view menfolk." She favored Keitaro with a little smirk. "I also have the benefit of knowing your grandmother; she has spoken highly of you, but also truthfully about your human… foibles."

"So…?"

"I do not view you as a depraved pervert, no," she finished the tea and placed it on the table. "But I do wish to get to know you in person a bit more before I pass any further judgments."

"Judgments?" Keitaro questioned.

"Just as I am sure you are waiting to form your judgment on me." Tsuruko smiled thinly, but her tone was absolutely cordial with a hint of good humor.

He found himself chuckling. "Well, even though I have just met you I can tell you I think pretty highly of you. But I'm biased, you did save my life after all."

"You did take me out to lunch, and hold the door for me even though you had a broken leg," she touched a finger to her chin. "A very good start in our friendship, Mr. Manager-san."

"I apologize I could not offer you more than a beef bowl and a couple of teas…"

"Oh?" Tsuruko asked.

"Well, a great lady like you deserves a great feast." Keitaro blushed.

She smirked. "You flatter me, Manager-san." She nodded her head towards him across the table. "But I accept things in the spirit in which they were given. I have been known in my time to enjoy a beef bowl or even a cup of ramen from a vending machine."

"Same here."

They shared a good natured laugh, then as Keitaro paid the bill and the tip, he decided to venture another question. "So you're here to visit Motoko-chan. She said nothing about having family down for a visit."

"It is somewhat of a surprise, Manager-san…"

Keitaro nodded slowly. "Well," he checked his watch, "school just let out. Motoko-chan still has her train ride home from Tokyo. We should arrive at the Inn with plenty of time for you to get settled in and then spring that surprise on her!"

Tsuruko nodded, "oh she will be surprised."

"Happy to offer you a room for a night or two. No charge, of course."

She smiled. "Thank you, I will let you know if I will take you up on such a generous offer."

Keitaro returned the smile, not for the first time thinking that Tsuruko had to easily be one of the most beautiful women in the world. Her manner also helped ease his mind from the circumstances that led him to be walking home with a broken leg after being discharged from the hospital.

'He certainly has a sunny disposition, no matter what life throws at him,' Tsuruko thought as it conformed closely with how Granny Hina described her grandson.

After paying, the two were soon out on the side-walk slowly but steadily navigating their way through the early evening hustle and bustle of foot-traffic in Hinata City.

"If you do not mind me asking, Manager-san, how *did* you break your leg?" Tsuruko asked softly beside him, she was looking around to make certain that Keitaro faced no obstructions as he carefully navigated walking uphill with his crutches.

All at once Keitaro remembered the events that led up to him breaking his leg not long after finding out he got into Tokyo U, then his stay in the hospital, and finally Naru… He looked down, morosely he replied to Tsuruko: "I guess you could say my luck finally ran out."

Tsuruko listened sympathetically, but could tell that currently Keitaro was unprepared to say more. She decided to pass the rest of their walk up the hill to the Hinata Inn by telling Keitaro about the Aoyama family and God's Cry holdings in the mountains of Kyoto, which Keitaro found fascinating, and also how she knew his grandmother.

"Amazing, so you used to stay at the Inn back before Granny and Auntie Haruka turned it into a girls' dorm?"

Tsuruko nodded in the affirmative. "That was when I was guest teaching kendo at Reika Girls High School." She tittered, "I was scarcely older than the girls I was teaching."

Keitaro huffed as he worked the crutches up the ever steeper incline of the sidewalk, heading towards Hinata mountain and home. "That must have been something else."

"It was. The girls even had a nickname for me, the Kendo Wolf of Kyoto, or just 'The Wolf' since I was born and raised in the mountains and the forests," Tsuruko smiled at her memories. "I was a bit of a loner then, too, but hardly anti-social."

"You a loner at Reika High School?" Keitaro blinked, "the girls there treat Motoko-chan like she's a goddess."

Tsuruko nodded, smirking. "In a manner of speaking, yes. That is how my mother and I knew of Reika High School and how it would be a good place for Motoko-han to go to high school. I started off a loner there, but I learned a lot, made many friends, and helped its kendo program become the best secondary school program in all of Japan," her tone took on a touch of melancholy, "when I left, even the principal wept, and so did your Grandmother."

Keitaro listened closely, then nodded. Memories from his childhood began resurfacing. "Back around then when I used to visit, Granny used to tell me about a man who was talented with swords, too, not kendo but another art… but also different from the Urashima arts she learned in her younger days," Keitaro wracked his notoriously dense brain as he remembered his stays at the Inn when he was young and also whenever Granny Hina would come to visit his parents, him, and Kanako. "She said he also stayed at the Inn a lot, too," Keitaro chuckled, reminiscing out loud: "Granny Hina also used to whisper to me that he was a demon-slayer."

"I knew him," Tsuruko smiled, but her tone was distant, sad.

Keitaro sensed that, and was thankful politeness provided an opportunity to let the conversation end as they had arrived at the stone staircase leading up to the Hinata Inn.

000

Keitaro splashed cold water on his face. How the hell did he get himself into this? The walk up the stairs had filled Keitaro with pride as he was able to manage going up with his crutches all on his own. Kitsune, Shinobu, and Haruka had met them at the front door, followed soon thereafter by Su and Sara. Keitaro had made initial introductions, and everyone settled in the common room. Soon Tsuruko was enjoying some tea as Keitaro commented that Motoko should be home any minute…

'Well, that part went according to plan,' Keitaro thought as he dried his face off. It was everything else that happened after Motoko walked in the door that he was still making sense of.

Before opening the bathroom door, Keitaro took one look at his reflection. He double-checked that his lips were sealed so that he would not voice the thoughts careening their way around his head. 'So, Motoko-chan is scared Tsuruko-sama is going to take her home and force her to become head of the dojo when she is not yet ready; so now I am playacting as Motoko-chan's fiance until Tsuruko-sama decides to go home to Kyoto.'

His shoulders slumped. Inwardly, he was relieved that his words to Tsuruko earlier had said nothing about his relationship status in the house; giving Motoko a shot to spin her tale about them being engaged. When Tsuruko had questioned Keitaro about why he had not told her this earlier in the day, Motoko had covered for him by thinking fast and telling Tsuruko that a gentleman does not just up and tell his fiance's older sister about the engagement on the city street; he waits until a proper sit-down meeting for such a declaration.

'And now, I have to get ready to take a bath with Motoko-chan… great, kami knows I have certainly fallen in there or walked in on her enough times,' Keitaro's morose interior monologue continued as he unlocked the door and hobbled out into the hallway.

"Hey sugah, you feelin' all right?" Kitsune's tone was hardly more than a whisper, and she looked up and down the hallway to make sure Tsuruko was not anywhere around.

"Oh hey, Kitsune," Keitaro hastily threw on a smile. "Yeah, just fine here. What's up?"

"You will be if you aren't extra careful with this little charade you and Motoko cooked up," Kitsune pointed a finger right at Keitaro's nose. "I know you only want to help kendo girl; and I do too, but you two have to watch your asses on this one!"

"Well, you helped too."

The fox of Hinata cracked a grin. "Hell yeah, I did."

"I hope this will all be over soon," he whispered, "so just play along until then, okay?"

Kitsune nodded. "Sure I will," she shrugged, "I just wish kendo girl had a better plan than this."

"You and me both…"

"Another thing," Keitaro opened her eyes just a bit more, "don't you be lingerin' in there with Motoko, in fact nag her a bit to hurry up and git. The less time you spend in the hot springs, the better everyone will be."

"Gotcha," Keitaro nodded, it sounded like good advice. "Oh, Kitsune…?"

"What hon?"

"Did you talk to Naru today?" Keitaro almost felt his heart sinking as he forced out the words.

"A little bit before she left on her club trip to Kyoto, why?"

"Did… did she say anything about me?"

Kitsune favored him with a probing look. "What happened, Keitaro?"

"... I… told her I loved her when she visited me in the hospital," Keitaro looked down at the floor, almost willing himself to meld into the floorboards.

Kitsune blinked. "Wow… heh, way to go, Keitaro." Kitsune chuckled, "what did she say-and why didn't she tell me?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Kitsune's mouth gaped open. "Wait, hold on… you told her you love her, then what did she do?"

"She had her back turned when I told her, she was about to leave, I could tell she heard and understood what I said by how she was standing." Keitaro fought back tears. "She said nothing and left the room."

"... I can't believe her…" Kitsune muttered, absolutely shocked.

"... did I do something wrong?"

"What?!" Kitsune looked up at Keitaro.

He repeated the question.

"No, of course not, Keitaro. You did nothin' wrong, hon," Kitsune took a steadying breath. "Look, you pull yourself together, go sit with your back turned to Motoko in the hot spring, don't rile up kendo girl; we'll talk later. Okay?" Kitsune gave him one last soft look as she walked down the hallway.

Keitaro nodded, trying again to pull himself together. This happened whenever he recalled what had happened in the hospital.

As Kitsune rounded a corner, she thought. 'What the hell, seriously what is that girl thinkin'? This is the last time I go to bat for her if this is how she plays somethin' like this, like *him*'

"Oh, Kitsune?" Keitaro called out.

She peeked her head back around the corner.

Keitaro smiled, that same hopeful smile he always had in trying times. "Thank you for offering to help me home today. I really did appreciate it."

"Sure, yeah," Kitsune replied, then smiled. "Of course I was going to offer. That's what your friendly neighborhood fox is for." She smirked, "you can show your appreciation in buying me a drink next time we're all out on the town."

He actually chuckled. "You got it."

Maybe it was his smile or him laughing a little bit, but Kitsune found herself not turning back and going back down the hallway as quickly as she normally would.

000

A week earlier…

It was late at night; near the peak of one of the mountains of Kyoto prefecture on the opposite side from where the Aoyama family compound stood. At that altitude the only things in view were scattered pine trees, massive boulders and what could only be described as an ominous blood red full moon.

Stopping on her voyage and letting out an unusual but small sigh Tsuruko turned her head to face her ever-present shoulder companion. "Is it not an amazement that for her age, Hina-sama is able to make it all the way to the mountain peak of one of her clan's most ancient retreat?"

"QUAW!" replied a happy Shippu as he lowers his head towards his master, allowing her to more easily pet him.

Over the last few weeks since separating from her husband; the swordswoman had found it more difficult to come to terms with the event than she had anticipated. Though a mutual decision on their part and for the benefit of her closest friend and her children, it still hurt. Hurt in a way Tsuruko never imagined. There were moments in the day when she had to make an honest mental effort to *not* resent Kimiko for putting her in this situation in the first place. Letting out another sigh the ever vigilant swordswoman looked around using her senses and ki to search for any presence… human or otherwise. Finding no one for the moment, she resumed her conversation with her pet. "I hope Hina and her little 'offer I cannot refuse' will be able to help ease these doubts and feelings I am having, Shippu."

"QUAW!" Shippu lowered his head further this time and smoothed his head against his mistress' forehead to show his support.

With an affectionate smile Tsuruko gently stroked his beak. "You are a most loyal familiar," she chuckled, turning back towards her eventual destination. With an amused smile the elder Aoyama daughter continued as she gazed at the mountain peak ahead. "Though I find it hard to believe with its size, I swear the dwelling changes location each time I visit and the surrounding terrain with it."

Suddenly broken from her conversation with her pet by a slight rustling in the branches above; Tsuruko placed her hand on the hilt of her dreaded Ikazuchi tightly, sensing a familiar presence. "Kanako-san? Show yourself at once, you have let your presence be known and I am not keen for games unless I choose them."

Amused, jumping from her perch in the tree above, Kanako lands gracefully into a crouching position a few feet in front of Tsuruko. "I cannot answer the first question for you Tsuruko-sama; as it is an Urashima family secret. However I can guide you to your destination as Hina has instructed me to do so."

Seeing no threat from her new companion Tsuruko takes on her usual stoic demeanor. "I believe I will accept your most generous offer, Kanako-san. Though I do not care to admit it as it is something that almost never occurs, the Urashima retreat seems to elude me each visit."

Offering her charge a smile Kanako opens her hands then arms towards Tsuruko to show no ill intentions. The dark haired Urashima martial artist and witch laughs pleasantly. "It is meant too, we do not wish just anyone finding us up here as it is called a retreat for a reason. Though I do feel I still owe you for helping me before, I will always be glad to offer you my aid."

"I am glad to hear that you offer me your aid if I so require, though any more than you acting as my guide to the retreat and your grandmother I do not believe I require it at this time; I thank you for your gracious offer nonetheless." Reciprocating in kind Tsuruko smiles at her acquaintance, nods, and removes her hand from her blade to signify no ill will.

Momentarily surprised at her friend's outward display of affection, Kanako carefully reads Tsuruko's expression for a moment. "How have you been these last few weeks? Granny informed me of your split from Ko… I am willing to talk. Anytime."

Tsuruko takes a deep breath to steady herself from the one topic that seemed to frustrate her of late. "I thank you for your offer Kanako, nevertheless I hope to discuss the matter with you later after speaking with Hina-sama." She offered the black-clad girl a weak smile. Sensing multiple strong presences around them, her weak smile turned into her trademark smirk. "For now we have a few unexpected guests..."

Amusedly Kanako's smile deepens a little. "They are not of any concern Tsuruko-sama, they are merely a few of Hina's guards." Kanako then raised her voice. "THOUGH IT TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH!" Kanako pointed in two directions, once in front of where they stood on the mountain path, and once to their rear. "Yeah! I'm talking to you two!"

Suddenly two slender women appeared like phantoms and began to approach from opposite sides of Tsuruko and Kanako from the sparse tree line in what looked like modernised Shinobi clothing. Tsuruko hid her bemused reaction at the level of stealth the two women employed.

As they got within several feet of both Kanako and Tsuruko they stopped and bowed before them each in turn, then one began to speak in measured tones. "We apologise for our delayed reaction Kanako-sama, however we were already aware of the Aoyama samurai's approach for quite some time as was Hina. We were instructed not to interfere, our orders were to leave you to greet your friend."

The other Shinobi then began to speak in a smug tone. "Additionally Hina became concerned that you had something urgent to discuss with Aoyama-sama. Something about that 'little problem' with your brother-"

"Huh?!" That was all the shocked Urashima could think to reply. "WHAT PROBLEM?! I…I…I got here first, that means I'm better!" Kanako quickly retorts. "And I am completely fine now with my onii-chan… Granny needs to stop worrying!"

One of the shinobi females stands and removes her mask to reveal an attractive modern looking woman who looked to be in her mid twenties with dark hair cascading down to her backside. "As if! I'm older, wiser, and much more experienced than you. And recovery takes a while, in your grandmother's words."

Kanako, not one to back down, gets right into the girl's face. "Aiko, compared to me you're nothing!"

"Nuh-uh… Not only am I one of Hina's personal guards but I've got bigger tits too; not like you and Tora!" Aiko, placing an arm under her rather large barely constrained bust. "See? Even when tied down now they are still bigger than yours!" Aiko moved closer to Kanako and began to snigger as the Urashima clan resident witch looked down eyeing at the difference in size as her face began to seethe in jealousy.

Despite herself, Tsuruko could not resist a stifled chuckle. This Aiko's ability to rattle Kanako's cage was entertaining to watch.

The other shinobi stood and removed her mask to reveal an attractive but old fashioned looking woman also around her mid twenties with shoulder length dark hair. She greeted Tsuruko, seemingly unfazed one way or another by Aiko and Kanako's display. "As Aiko just explained my name is Tora and I am also one of Hina's personal guards. Don't worry about those two, Aiko's been one of Kanako's sparring partners for quite some time; though you wouldn't believe it they are also good friends. Little spats like this have gotten a lot more vocal since you helped her to open up more. Which I must thank you for." She bowed her head to the samurai.

Watching the shenanigans of the two under discussion, Tsuruko laughed merrily. "I am Tsuruko Aoyama. It is good to see her finally open up to someone other than close family or myself. Though I count Kanako-san among my short list of friends, I do not often get time to converse with her as much as I would like."

Tora regarded Tsuruko with awe, momentarily stunned at her effortless beauty. Finally, she gathered her wits about her. "It is best that we begin our way to Hina-sama as those two could take a while to complete their …ummm…. greeting ritual of sorts."

Still very amused, Tsuruko looked at Kanako unable to believe her the same person who came to her a year ago needing help opening up to someone. She looked back at Tora again. "Yes, I believe we shall." They both turn to begin making their way up the rocky path to the retreat leaving Aiko and Kanako to burn off their excess energy.

000

-Several minutes later-

Reaching the traditional Shinto style destination that seemed to fit the landscape without overshadowing the natural beauty Tsuruko instructed Shippu to take flight until she returns. The majestic crane replied with a "QUAW!" as he stretched his wings and set off into the air.

Seeing her companion Tora in awe as the bird spread its wings Tsuruko amusedly asks, "Shall we continue?"

Tora silently nodded, using an unseen method to open the ornate door. The two entered the Urashima retreat, Tsuruko leading the way as she already knew her ultimate destination.

A few minutes later Tsuruko is kneeling next to Hina's personal guard behind the sliding shōji screen door as Tora is about to announce their presence when they hear a voice. "I am aware that you have arrived Tora, please show Tsuruko-sama in and wait for further instruction."

Awestruck at the old woman, Tora takes a moment to gather herself. "Yes Hina-sama," sliding the shōji screen door open to allow the honored guest entry without rising.

Hearing the door slide shut then noting the large fire with its simple traditional Shinto style decoration Tsuruko makes her way to one side of the fire opposite the Urashima matriarch.

Carefully observing her guest Hina notes the downheartedness in Tsuruko's demeanor and the elder's voice takes on a concerned tone, "It is good to see you have finally arrived child; how have you been keeping since your sunder?"

Knowing she would be unable to hide the truth, Tsuruko mentally debates what she hoped to achieve in accepting the elder Urashima's invitation. Tsuruko chose her next words carefully, "If I am truthful Hina sama; I am finding the whole ordeal more trying than I had originally anticipated." Pausing to compose herself by taking a deep breath. "Right now, if you do not mind, I would prefer to discuss the plan to assess Motoko-han's abilities."

Sensing her emotional turmoil the elder Urashima goes silent and carefully eyes Tsuruko. An amused smirk (not unlike the much younger woman sitting before her) plays along Hina's aged lips as she comes to a conclusion. "You should know better and be more honest and open with this old woman, child."

Realising she should have expected that reaction Tsuruko squares her head and decides to forge on with being completely forthcoming with her old friend. "I understand Hina-sama, and I beg your forgiveness for wishing to brush things aside," Tsuruko sighed. "It is just that I have found that though Ko and I choose this path... he has someone to help him through this ordeal and I am finding myself resenting that fact." Tsuruko was silent for a moment as she searched for the right phrase. "There are simply not enough duties at the Aoyama compound that my students or my mother can give me-nor petty dramas or controversies that my aunt cannot concoct-to keep my mind from regurgitating the whole trial. It is leading to feelings of resentment regardless of the path being of my own choosing." Tsuruko bowed her head, closing her eyes and breathing deeply to find calm.

Nodding in approval at the Aoyama's honesty Hina levels her gaze at the swordswoman and in the blink of an eye is pulling her into a hug. "Child, those are perfectly natural emotions; it is something no one ever anticipates experiencing," patting the younger woman's back as she continues, "though I have never experienced such heart ache I do know what the loss of a life partner is like. I lost my husband many years ago, but there are times the pain is still almost unbearable."

Several minutes past as the two offer support to one another as the occasional tear is shed and they quietly discuss the particulars of their lost loves. Hina spoke of the charming but clumsy man she met when she was young, Sho. He had the same last name as her as he was part of the Urashima clan by blood but the degree of separation was such that any concern of affinity was nonexistent once it was explained to anyone who dared venture such a scandalous question. Sho had dutifully graduated high school, attended college, graduated, then began work in the bowels of a major corporation. Though unmarried and getting older, his life to his parents was a note of pride save for the lack of a wife. That was, until the day (as Sho put it) he realized if he did not do something he feared he would become like one of the ceiling tiles in the ceiling of his office; cracked and warped. He gave his respects and thanks to his bosses, quit his job, and began visiting his extended family, moving from place to place until he arrived at the Hinata Inn and met his very distant relation Hina. He never left, in fact his grave is in the small family cemetery Keitaro maintains to this day.

Tsuruko told the story of Ko, even though Hina knew most of it herself, of course. Ko displayed a talent for being sensitive to the unseen world from an early age. His parents encouraged it, and instead of college after graduating high school he started learning from the finest minds dedicated to the occult in Japan and soon, abroad. Ko first met Hina when he stayed at the Inn after coming back from a study trip to visit a shaman of one of the First Nations' of Canada. Ko stayed there at Hina's invitation as his talent had come to the attention of the Urashima clan. Ko's visit also coincided with the first stay of Tsuruko at the Inn while she taught Kendo at Reika Girls' High School. Tsuruko and Ko got along as friends from the start, and at times would work together on demon-hunting. It was after Hina witnessed the unspoken communication and coordination one night between them as they assisted her in preparing dinner for the Inn's guests that started Hina poking at them both to start thinking of each other as more than friends and occasional work colleagues.

Feeling the Aoyama swordmistress calming down from her sorrow Hina releases her and sits closely in front of one of the strongest women she knew. 'Well, next to me of course,' Hina mentally corrected. Social etiquette be damned.

Noting that Tsuruko was back in control of herself as she wiped a few remnants of her tears into her gi sleeve Hina's debated her next move. Suddenly her right eye gets that devious twinkle that can only mean one thing, though it goes unseen by her guest. "Now dear I cannot help but feel this is partially my responsibility for introducing you to Ko and urging for your union. Hence, I have a strategy that will help you work through some of your emotions and test Motoko-chan's abilities at the same time."

Tsuruko looked at her, waiting.

Hina smiled, confirming that she had the woman's attention. Hina continued. "Plus you will finally get to meet my darling grandson."

Tsuruko gives an honest smile. "Wonderful, I should probably spend some time with family during this ordeal."

As the two begin to discuss the plan. Tora who is finally joined by Kanako and Aiko waited in silence outside the room in the hallway. They strain their hearing but are unable to make out anything beyond the cackling of Hina as the Urashima matriarch and Tsuruko discuss the business at hand. Kanako felt a slightly chilling sensation running up and down her spine as she listened to her grandmother's laughter.

'What does Granny have up her sleeve now?' Kanako thought.

000

Kitsune sat on the couch in the Hinata Inn's common room, not for the first time wondering how the hell Keitaro and Motoko were doing on their little quest to defeat Tsuruko in battle, and also when the hell she would hear from Naru. She had a horse race on the television, a couple of horses she had a moderate amount of money on, but while time and again she reminded herself to pay attention to her racing forms and the thoroughbred stats book she had, she found her mind drifting back to the newest drama the Hinata Inn girls and their hapless manager found themselves embroiled in.

"One I had nothin' to do with, thank you very much," she sipped from the bottle of sake Keitaro had bought for her. She silently thanked the absent manager with a broken leg. Not for the first time, Kitsune found the back of her mind buzzing at the bad luck being visited upon Keitaro since successfully getting into Tokyo U and she surprised herself by steadily growing more angry at it. While she had taken advantage of Keitaro's good and trusting nature for her own gain, and also his clumsiness for some cheap laughs, she always at the end of the night consoled herself by thinking, 'at least I know not to cross the line.'

Her best friend however, in the days since Keitaro told her what happened between them at the hospital, while Kitsune struggled mightily to try and empathize with whatever was going through the studious brunette' head, the fox woman always came up with no answer and only questions. But, after a considerable amount of time thinking about it this morning as her two cups of coffee turned into the first sake of the day, Kitsune, her conscience, the sake, and her knowledge of the individuals involved came to a very informed, democratic decision that Naru Narsuegawa had indeed crossed the line.

Since coming to said conclusion, Kitsune's eyes drifted over to the common room's telephone for the fourth time since sitting down to watch today's races. When Naru called, what would she say? What could she say? How to say it? How not to say it?

Kitsune exhaled sharply, taking another swig of her sake. Keitaro did not have to buy her this, he had every right to take a raincheck or even blow her off over this one, but true to form the manager had spent money he did not have in order to meet her request. And right now he and Motoko were in a struggle of brawn and wits up there in kami-knew-where-Kyoto Prefecture to somehow get the drop on Tsuruko so they would not be forced to go along with Motoko's desperate "we're getting married" lie and Keitaro's damnable honor in going along with it.

Her race was next, half-heartedly Kitsune picked up her notepad, and looked over at her forms, then over at her stat book. The odds were three to one for HashHouse Hirohito, but they were better than what she feared were facing Keitaro and Motoko right now.

The phone rang. Kitsune stood up, but not before emptying the remaining sake. If it was who she hoped (feared) it was, she was going to need it.

"As I live and breath, when it rains it pours shit." The fox drawled as the Caller ID did confirm her hopes and fears. A payphone in Kyoto. It could not be Motoko or Keitaro as the manager had taken his mobile phone and also Motoko had left her family home's contact number.

"Hello, you have reached the Hinata Inn, Girls Dormitory, how may I assist you?"

[Kitsune? Hey, it's Naru! How are things going down there?]

Kitsune took a moment to compose herself.

"Ah hey, Naru-chan! Things are going okay, how about you?" Kitsune hoped that the alcohol was doing its intended job to help her sound more relaxed than she currently felt.

[The club trip to the temple is over, and everyone else has already gone back to Tokyo,] Naru recited excitedly, [but I thought I'd do some sightseeing before I came home.]

"Cool."

[Did I get any mail?]

"Wha?" Kitsune was a bit taken aback that it was the second question Naru had asked. Naru repeated her question.

"Hold on a sec girl, let me see." Kitsune went over to the front foyer and stopped at the marked mailbox for each of the Hinata's residents, she picked up Naru's mail (only one item) and returned to the phone. "Naru-chan? You still there?"

She was.

"You got a postcard from your Mom showing Tokyo U in the spring. Lovely."

[I told her I was on a club trip. What does it say?]

Kitsune opened her fox eyes a bit wider to read through the haze of her increasing sake buzz. "She hopes you had a good time on the club trip, and wishes you love and good studies; oh wait Mei is getting an award in three days from her school; perfect attendance and academic record."

[...]

"Well, isn't that great?" Kitsune's reaction was completely genuine as she had a soft spot for Naru's little step-sister.

[Yeah, it is!]

"There's a bit more here," Kitsune peered a bit closer at the postcard as she read out loud. "Your Mom said she wired a ticket to the main Kyoto station if you can come home and attend the ceremony. Mei would be absolutely thrilled. And there's a confirmation number. Ya want it?"

[Yeah! I better catch the next bus back down into Kyoto City if I want to be at the ceremony in time for Mei.]

Kitsune carefully read off the confirmation number while Naru copied it down. Once finished, a smirk crossed Kitsune's face. "Well, what about Keitaro?"

[Um… yeah, how is he?]

Kitsune took a measured, deep breath. "As well as can be expected, he got home alright, it's just what happened on the way and when he actually got home that is the problem."

[What did that idiot do this time?]

"Nothing."

[... excuse me, Kitsune?]

"You heard me, 'nothing.'" Kitsune allowed a hint of venom into her voice, hoping this would get through to her friend. "Something you have experience in."

[What do you mean? Look Kitsune, this is a payphone and I have to catch the next bus back to Kyoto City so I can get to the train station in time.]

"Naru, I *know* what Keitaro said to you, and what you did after that." Kitsune took a breath. "Which is nothing. You said nothing, you left his hospital room, and what's more you left him to walk him from the damned hospital alone with a broken leg." Kitsune laughed bitterly. "Haruka and I even offered to help walk him home, but he steadfastly refused out of the goodness of his dumb old heart because I would be the only adult here and Haruka needed to be busy down at the tea shop during that time of day! She really needs to make money this month, you know..."

[...]

"Got anything to say for yourself, Naru?" Kitsune drawled, the alcohol really hitting her now. "I've been a' tryin' to figure out what was a' goin' through your head in that moment, but damned if I know."

[Is… is he there right now?]

"Oh yeah. That." Kitsune chuckled. "He's actually somewhere up there in Kyoto in the mountains somewhere having some kind of half-assed duel against Motoko's big sister. If they win, Motoko gets to stay here in Hinata and inherit her family's dojo someday when the cows come home, or somethin'. If they lose, they have to get married, you see."

[... th-the hell?!]

"Yeah, Keitaro got roped into some damn silly lie of Motoko's, that girl actually lied to her sister about being engaged to him, and got him and all of us to go along with it." Kitsune at that moment was aching to crack open another bottle of sake, but held back as long as she had Naru on the hook, so to speak.

[... that… that IDIOT!]

"Um, nope." KItsune allowed annoyance to filter into her voice. "He did nothing wrong except agree to help Motoko; same as us, hell kendo girl was *begging* us to do this for her."

[...still, Kitsune…]

Kitsune ignored Naru. "Anywho, Motoko's sister found out that it was a lie; and disowned Motoko from the family and banished her from the dojo. Kendo girl freaked."

[I bet, that's harsh of her sister.]

"Yeah, no shit, Naru." Kitsune sighed, her tolerance for the conversation fraying. "To make a long story short, Keitaro met up with Ms. Kendo Queen and told her just how broken and hopeless Motoko was; so the lady proposed this duel up in Kyoto. Three days, starting today, and if they can kick her ass in some way then Motoko gets back into the family, honor, and the dojo. Otherwise, it's Mrs. Motoko Urashima."

[Idiot Keitaro shouldn't have let this happen! He should have-

"You going after him or not, Naru?"

[...]

"Answer me, girl."

[... no. I have to go home.]

Kitsune sighed. "That's your choice; but I am telling you this as your best friend, I'm done running interference or support, or whatever the fuck I do for you in regards to men. In particular, Keitaro."

KItsune heard a deep sigh on the other end of the receiver. "Naru-chan, I'm only tellin' you all of this for your own good."

[I know.]

"This is it, you know," Kitsune raised her voice, "If Keitaro decides he likes some other girl who isn't you, I'm just gonna let it happen. But you have the option to poke around up there in Kyoto to try and find them. Shouldn't be too hard, just watch for falling trees, wind gusts, and Keitaro flying through the air. You could still fix this, you know. Got that?"

[I do…]

"Well?" Kitsune closed her eyes, wanting to blot out the entire world in that moment.

[I… I need time to think, okay? I… I am sorry, Kitsune… I just have to go home, okay?]

"You remember what I said then," Kitsune growled.

[Okay… I'm going now, bye.]

Kitsune listened to the sound of the receiver for a long time until the signal echoed in her ears to hang up. Slowly, she did so. The alcohol buzz was starting to subside. She ambled over to get more sake, when she passed Haruka who had entered the Inn without the fox noticing.

"Hey, Haruka," Kitsune waved, walking over into the kitchen.

"Good afternoon," Haruka effortlessly balanced a lit cigarette in her lips as she carried in that day's mail.

"What's in the mail today?" Kitsune asked as she retrieved her chilled sake from the refrigerator.

Haruka glanced through the pile that she had placed on the counter. "... well, well, well…"

"What now?" Kitsune sighed, holding the bottle.

Haruka opened an elegant envelope. "That Tsuruko sure works fast," Haruka read aloud: 'Hinata Inn Residents, you are cordially invited to the binding together in love, commitment, and marriage of Mr. Keitaro Urashima and Ms. Motoko Aoyama,'" she held up a number of tickets. "All expenses paid, too."

Kitsune laughed as she opened the bottle and took a swig. "Get the girls down here, Haruka, we're goin' up to Kyoto."

"What about Naru?" Haruka exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"She has other priorities at the moment," Kitsune took another drink, somberly trying to figure out how to tell Keitaro about her conversation with Naru. 'She's got nothin' to complain about if he decides he's done with her,' Kitsune thought. Somehow, the sorrow she expected to feel at such a thought was less than she expected, and not just by the alcohol.

000

The next night, Keitaro and Motoko sat on the deck outside one of the buildings at the Aoyama family compound, deep in thought. She had met him while he was out walking the gardens of the Aoyama family compound, and asked if she could have a word with him. Keitaro had still been dressed in his shinobi garb from earlier in the day, while Motoko had changed into her school uniform. Keitaro still even had that old sword of his grandmother's on his back. Odd, even though she had told him they would not be using it in the duel, he never took it off of his back. Motoko shook her head, such musings were useless right now. They only had tomorrow morning left. So far, all of their attempts to defeat Tsuruko had ended up in failure.

'Failure is far too kind a word for it,' Motoko thought as she puzzled over their predicament. Her sister was probably the most powerful, strongest woman on the face of the Earth in many respects, and she had a mind that did not miss much when it came to battle. Even Keitaro's family ninja tactics had done nothing except gotten them beaten all the more soundly. It was the evening of the day before the final showdown. 'At this rate, I will be living the life of an ordinary woman,' Motoko spared a glance to her side where Keitaro was bandaging up his latest bruise that would heal with amazing speed compared to "normal" people who were not ki-gifted. 'Motoko Urashima… what could Big Sis be thinking?' Motoko sighed, 'more like what was I thinking?'

Motoko's thoughts once again drifted back to the sword Keitaro was carrying in its scabbard on his back. She had forced him to close it when he had attempted to unsheath it in his room back at the Inn, but as their defeats became more numerous and time grew short, she thought back on the presence she felt from it, and the odd shift in Keitaro's behavior and the "feeling" in the air. In ordinary circumstances, she would have asked her mother or Tsuruko for their 'insight,' but with her current questionable status within the family, she could not go to them unless it was a clear and immediate danger. And, really, Motoko doubted that the presence in the Urashima family heirloom was anything more than one of Keitaro's bumbling ancestors trying to keep watch over him. No more than an annoyance she did not have the time to deal with now.

Then why was the aura so hard to put out of her mind?

Motoko was about to ruminate on this more when Keitaro pointed up. "There's that crane again."

"Yes. Shippu..." Motoko sighed. That bird had caused them more grief than she ever thought possible. It started simply enough, with the bird either being perched on his mistress' shoulder or flying nearby, but as the days wore on it became obvious that Shippu was one of their opponents too. One moment the bird was signalling Tsuruko that they were about to sneak up behind her, another time they thought they had could surprise Tsuruko while she was using the bathroom; only to open the door and find Shippu *using* the toilet.

'I will never get that image out of my mind,' Motoko recalled miserably. She remembered Keitaro damn near losing his lunch afterwards, and figured it was the same for him.

What was it that the Westerners liked to say? 'I hope I will not be telling this to a therapist when I am forty-five,' Motoko sullenly completed the thought.

And finally, after Keitaro sold her on trying to utilize some of his family's ninjitsu techniques for a sneak attack on Tsuruko while she bathed in the Aoyama family open air hot spring. When Motoko and Keitaro surfaced after slowly swimming underwater for almost an hour, breathing through bamboo straws, they were confronted with the sight of Shippu happily bathing.

'Damn that bird, damn him to hell,' Motoko thought bitterly.

"I am trying to think of some possible weakness in Tsuruko-sama from what we have seen," Keitaro spoke as he gingerly stretched out his cast-covered broken leg. His crutches rested within reach.

"So am I, Urashima. Unfortunately there is not very much that my Big Sister misses." Motoko spoke as she watched Shippu circle around the grounds of the dojo, make his curious "kue kue" sound a couple of times, then fly off somewhere out of view.

Motoko sighed, she had put off her reason for asking to speak to Keitaro for long enough. "Say… Urashima…"

"Yeah?" Keitaro looked over to her. "What is it, Motoko-chan?"

"Would… would-it-be-so-bad-if-you-*had*-to-marry-me?" Motoko glanced down, then up at Keitaro, blushing sharply.

Keitaro blinked, then blinked again. But… didn't she hate this whole thing? Didn't he? He thought again about when Tsuruko had told him the terms of the duel, and how she would insist that he honored his part in Motoko's lie if they failed to defeat her. Keitaro still remembered unbidden how a mental picture of him and Motoko, married, with two little children all dressed up for the O-bon festival and how the thought had felt good...

… then he remembered Naru.

… and then he remembered Naru with her back to him and leaving his hospital room and closing the door behind her.

"You mean you actually want to, Motoko-chan?!" Keitaro asked, blushing furiously. Part of the reason he was going through all this right now was that he truly believed that Motoko would sooner die than to be his wife, whether spiritually or physically. Keitaro vowed not to let that come to pass. He wanted the glorious kendoka of Hinata Inn to return that he had grown to fear and admire ever since his arrival at the Inn.

She looked down, and did not meet his gaze. "... j-j-just forget it, Urashima." Motoko stood up then rushed off into the night without another word or backwards glance.

"Hey wait, Motoko-chan!" Keitaro called afterwards, but was literally met by crickets.

He sighed, "I guess that answers that question at least, doesn't it?" Keitaro groused to no one in particular.

"Quaw!" Shippu landed on the ground next to him.

"Oh, hi Shippu," Keitaro nodded to the crane. "Come to further damage my sanity?"

The crane turned his head from side to side, as if responding in the negative.

Keitaro chuckled sadly, "here to tip off Tsuruko-sama that this is a good opportunity for a divide and conquer strike?"

Again, the same action from Shippu.

Keitaro raised an eyebrow. "You know, I could almost believe that you understood what I just said."

Shippu looked straight into his eyes then. -I did, you dummy.-

"Wha-what?" Keitaro looked around. "Who's there?"

"Kue!" Shippu fluttered impatiently, never breaking eye contact with Keitaro. -I am trying to tell you something, Keitaro.-

"... you actually can understand me?"

-Yes!- "Kue! Kue! Kue!" Shippu flew around to Keitaro's back and started nudging his head against his back. -Stand up!-

"Okay, okay," Keitaro grabbed his crutches then slowly rose to his feet.

-That's better. Follow me!- "Quaw!" Shippu took flight, but only flew very slowly and just ahead of Keitaro, impatiently egging him on down a path he had not followed before during his short time at the Aoyama compound.

000

Keitaro followed. Briefly he imagined himself trudging through the forest paths, carefully trying to find firm ground with his crutches, following a crane that seemed to be talking to him. Even with the carnival of freakishness that was his life, he reasoned that he really looked like a fool right now.

'Tokyo U Man, Mom!' Keitaro thought idly, 'on top of the world, Ma!' He allowed a paper-thin chuckle to escape his lips.

-Well, at least you are seeing *some* of the humor in all of this- Shippu replied back.

"Glad you and Tsuruko-sama are so amused," Keitaro huffed, trying to catch his breath.

"I would not say, *amused* Manager-san," Tsuruko's voice issued from a place to his lower left. Somehow, in the turmoil of his thoughts and thinking back and forth between him and Shippu, they had arrived in a small clearing lit by a small lantern hanging from a tree. There was a small koi pond fed by a stream that meandered off into the gloom of the forest, and a couple of wooden benches.

Tsuruko sat on one, then indicated the one next to her with a smile.

"Tsuruko-sama…!" Keitaro breathed. He bowed as best he could then ambled over to sit, gratefully, on the bench.

"Thank you for joining me here tonight, Manager-san," Tsuruko smiled as Shippu flapped and took his place on his mistress' shoulder. "Are you preparing for tomorrow?"

Keitaro sighed, "as well as I can with this leg."

"I once won a battle with my legs and arms bound."

"I'm hardly in your class of warrior, Tsuruko-sama." Keitaro chuckled.

"You sell yourself short, Manager-san," Tsuruko leaned forward. "You have gotten this far."

"With Motoko-chan's help."

"And who got her up here? Hmm?" She placed a finger on her chin in mock thought.

Keitaro could not help himself. Maybe it was the sheer absurdity of the past month for him, but taking it all in at once which he had previously not done-he giggled. "I guess it was me; for all the good it did her."

"Really? You talk as if you have already lost." Tsuruko placed her hands on her lap, almost formally.

"We're going to lose tomorrow," Keitaro sighed. "I know that much, at least. It's all my fault; I should have done something to prevent Motoko-chan from lying in the first place. If only-"

"You stop that talk right there, Manager-san!" Tsuruko said sharply.

Keitaro looked down in shame. Why couldn't he ever do anything right?

She took a deep breath. "While it was wrong of you to go along with Motoko-chan's lie, especially about such a serious matter as marriage, you cannot take complete responsibility for this affair due to a lot of it being Motoko-han's fault."

"But tomorrow," Keitaro continued in a low voice, "when we lose it will be because of me. If I was what Motoko-chan said I should be, a truly masculine man of honor, then I would be able to help her more in defeating you."

"Well, you certainly are not lacking in honor." Tsuruko smirked. "Or courage."

"Tomorrow, though-"

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow…" Tsuruko shook her head. "You act as if the future is already written in a scroll hidden in my gi." She looked at Keitaro for his reaction.

Keitaro simply looked straight at her. A wry smile broke out on his face. "The thought had crossed my mind."

Tsuruko shook her head. "My apologies, Manager-san, but even I do not know what will happen tomorrow."

Keitaro looked down, again he sighed, deep and heavy, his shoulders slumping.

"Your despair makes no logical or spiritual sense." Tsuruko stated.

"How can we beat such a great warrior as you?" Keitaro groaned. "And when I have a broken leg?" he indicated his leg in its cast. "Hell, even my friends haven't written anything on it for good luck, or whatever. I guess that shows just how highly I rate in the order of things."

She listened, then nodded silently. "Do you think you and Motoko-han are the first warriors to face long odds before facing their foe? Or that sometimes one must fight while injured?"

Keitaro shook his head. "No. Of course not."

"But you *can* still prevail, Manager-san."

"How?" Keitaro asked, a bit exasperated.

Tsuruko smiled. "That *would* be breaking the agreed upon rules for the duel. But I will tell you this; you do not know for certain what will unfold tomorrow, nor do I. Neither you or I can predict the future. We can guess, but that magical scroll with tomorrow written down on it has never been found by my hand." She chuckled.

Keitaro nodded slowly. "Still…"

"I am not going to lie to you," Tsuruko's tone turned serious. "You and Motoko-han face long odds, yes, but warriors with the amount of honor and strength of heart I have seen you two display still ride headlong into battle even if they know victory may not come."

He listened silently.

"Besides," Tsuruko grinned, "I may fall suddenly ill tomorrow during the duel and need to be carried off due to some intestinal ailment; that alone *would* qualify as defeat for me."

Keitaro looked up. "B-but I don't want that!"

"You mean you do not want victory tomorrow?"

"No! I mean, yes!" Keitaro sputtered. "I mean I don't want you to fall ill, Tsuruko-sama."

She smiled, regarding this man seated in front of her. "You are an interesting man, Manager-san, I can see why Motoko-han looked to you for help and nowhere else."

"Um… thanks, I guess." Keitaro scratched the back of his head.

"Your well wishes for my health aside," Tsuruko said evenly, "my point is that you are not in a position to know for certain what will happen tomorrow. I will fight to the best of my ability, and I expect no less of you in return."

He nodded slowly.

"Sometimes those who face the steepest mountain to climb to reach the summit, Manager-san. And those warriors who rode off into battle against almost impossible odds-sometimes they carved out victory for themselves." Tsuruko reached into her gi to retrieve a small cookie, she fed it to Shippu. "Since you do not know the future, despair and fatalism would seem to be a tactical mistake at the very least, and at most I deem it to be a spiritual sin."

"Thank you, Tsuruko-sama. I will try to remember what you have told me," Keitaro bowed his head again. He soon raised it. "But I can see that Motoko-chan and I are going to be in for a rough time tomorrow."

A small smile broke out on the swordswoman's face. "Then do not *see* it. A lot of what you see in the purely physical, visual sense is very deceiving to a warrior, in fact at times during a fight it might be more beneficial to be blind so as to rely more on more innate senses." Tsuruko said this with one of her trademark quirky, half smiles.

"And what would those be, Tsuruko-sama?" Keitaro had asked.

The half smile on Tsuruko's lovely face turned into a full smile, and Keitaro felt himself instinctively blush in response.

"To give you a piece or two of encouragement for tomorrow is one of the two reasons why I asked Shippu-kun to bring you here tonight. The other is a curiosity of mine of a purely personal nature that you may politely refuse to answer, if you so wish."

"No, go ahead," Keitaro nodded. "Ask me whatever you want, Tsuruko-sama."

She spoke slowly and deliberately: "Tell me about why Narsuegawa-san's absence pains you so much, exactly."

Keitaro's face fell, he felt the tears threaten to sting at the corner of his eyes. He fought for emotional control, but he knew it was a losing battle. But he had agreed to answer Tsuruko's question, and her eyes and face were so welcoming, so disarming. So, he told her. He told Tsuruko everything, including his belief that Naru was his Promise Girl. Once he was finished, he did feel some measure of peace.

Tsuruko nodded slowly, finding herself absorbed in what the man had told her about the ins and outs of his fraught relationship with the absent brunette star student. One part stuck out in her mind, however.

"Manager-san…?"

"Yeah?"

"This Promise you and this girl-who may or may not be Narsuegawa-san-made when you two were children," Tsuruko closed her eyes in thought. "While you said your memories are hazy around it; you said you were pretty certain of the words spoken."

Keitaro nodded. "Yes, I am."

"You and this little girl playing in the sandbox," Tsuruko repeated. "She said that two people who like each other go to Tokyo U together, find happiness together, and live happily ever after."

Keitaro listened, searched his memory, thinking hard and looking deeply within himself.

"Is that about the size of it?" Tsuruko prompted, her eyes opening and boring into his, a hint of steel in her tone telling Keitaro he would answer her.

"Y-yeah," he nodded slowly, his voice hardly audible.

"What part of the promise together said anything about falling in love and getting married, Manager-san?" Tsuruko asked.

Keitaro blinked. Growing up, he always just assumed that was the understanding of The Promise. "Well, what else could it be?"

"It could be a promise for everlasting friendship, an alliance, or to live good, honorable, and productive lives together." Tsuruko shrugged. "Promises amongst children that young, while they can have long-term binding meaning, do not mean you are fated lovers." She raised her hand, pointing gently at Keitaro. "Remember again what I told you about mistaking what you think will happen with fate. Fate is in the hands of greater forces than you are I; if it is in anyone's hands altogether or absolutely in all matters."

Keitaro sighed, trying to absorb all of this. So many events had happened to him lately that just completely shook him to his core. His head drooped again, gazing at a patch of grass in front of him. He heard Shippu briefly ruffle his feathers and flap his wings as he settled into a nap on his mistress' right shoulder.

Her features softened in the light of the lantern illuminating the small forest clearing. She would need to be delicate with her next question. "Tell me… Keitaro-san," her lips formed a small, but generous smile. "Have you ever bedded a woman before?"

Instantly, Keitaro's head shot up. "Wha-what?" He stammered.

"Your relationships with the women in your care seem to be your greatest concern; and I can tell from your actions and reactions around them-not to mention Motoko-han-that this is something that weighs upon your spirit." Tsuruko spoke with compassion but with authority.

Keitaro blushed. "... no, I have not." He kept his eyes fixed on that patch of grass that he wished he could hide under at that moment.

"It is nothing to be ashamed of, Keitaro-san." Tsuruko smiled. "Many young men your age have not."

"I know… but it does not make it any easier to deal with." Keitaro forced himself to met Tsuruko's gaze. He was surprised that what he found in her face was not pity, but a look that spoke of open compassion and acceptance.

"Yes, I know that." Tsuruko nodded, her ki sensing the shame and longing that emanated from the young man. "Someone very close to me once told me that the best gift a woman can give a man, besides sharing a bed," she chuckled, "is listening to him when he needs to ask sensitive questions about matters of the heart and the flesh."

"They must be a very smart person."

She smiled, bittersweet. "He still is."

"I… would like that," he looked down.

"I would be honored if you would ask, Keitaro-san." Tsuruko smiled.

The swordswoman resisted the urge to chuckle at the cute, deep red blush that colored Keitaro's face even in the nighttime shadows. "How… does it feel?"

"You mean… making love?"

He nodded. "Yeah…"

Tsuruko considered this very carefully. Part of her wondered if honor and decorum would frown on such a discussion considering the circumstances, but she held the ideal that women should engage in open dialog with men (especially young men) to help foster both respect for women but also equitable relationships. And though Motoko was fond of ignoring it; helping men was also part of the God's Cry School mission. Also, her heart was moved to compassion for Keitaro and what he had been dealing with in his life. From what it sounded like, he even lacked trusted male peers he could go to for advice. Or at least advice he could trust. Tsuruko also remembered how much Ko said his discussions with Granny Hina in his youth had helped him mature into the man she had married; and then had to give up.

She steadied herself, willing herself to avoid the sink of despair that still threatened to overflow from time to time.

She wet her lips, considering Keitaro's question carefully. Finally, Tsuruko favored him with a smile. "Forgive me, Keitaro-san… but it is a simple question with many different answers."

"I am so sorry for asking-"

Tsuruko put up a hand to silence his apology tour. "But I *will* answer. Of course, the sexual act is physically very pleasurable. It can be so even if it is conducted for the most casual purposes between two random people; though inadvisable and reprehensible that might be, but from what I have seen-and really I have only been with one man before-and heard the greater the connection and rapport between two people the greater the satisfaction with the act."

"So… when it is with someone you really, truly love," Keitaro managed amid his embarrassment, but feeling a bit bold nonetheless.

"It is absolutely breathtaking." Tsuruko nodded with a radiant smile.

So radiant was Tsuruko's smile that Keitaro found himself smiling back.

"You will find that match someday, Keitaro-san." Tsuruko said firmly.

Keitaro looked up into the patch of night sky visible above them. The stars twinkling back. "... I thought I had."

"I am sorry about Narsuegawa-san." It was really all Tsuruko could think to say on the matter.

"And I am sorry to hear about… well, your divorce." Keitaro returned his gaze to her.

Tsuruko nodded silently, with a welcoming expression that told Keitaro she appreciated his kindness in this regard. "Motoko-han?"

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah. She told me."

"It… still hurts, Keitaro-san," she said, unsure why she was speaking. "Did Motoko-han tell you why?"

"A little, I did not want to ask more out of respect," Keitaro replied quietly. "I'm sorry, I should not have brought it up."

Tsuruko shook her head. "No, you did nothing wrong. In fact, thank you for your sympathy." She gave a sad smile, which grew more mischievous as a very amusing idea came into her head.

"I said you will find your match someday, Keitaro-san," Tsuruko stated imperiously, "if you and Motoko-han do indeed lose tomorrow I will say that destiny has found your match for you."

Keitaro actually laughed. The sheer absurdity of events dawning on him. "I doubt I would be a good husband to Motoko-chan."

"I think you would be. I can tell right now if it is to be so, then the Aoyama clan will gain a great son-in-law and myself a wonderful, compassionate brother-in-law." Tsuruko finished that last statement with a hint of sadness.

"Somehow I doubt Motoko-chan will see it that way," Keitaro said ruefully.

"First things first, Keitaro-san," Tsuruko clapped her hands quietly, then rose. She waited for Keitaro to do so on his own. "Leave tomorrow for tomorrow, I expect you and Motoko-han to give it your all."

Keitaro nodded, knowing that their meeting was over. "We will, Tsuruko-sama."

Tsuruko stepped closer until she was in front of him, he could see that familiar smile on her lips. "Now, now, Keitaro-san, no need to be *quite* so formal. After all, I ceased calling you Manager-san. No matter what, I would like you to think of me as a friend."

Wordlessly, Keitaro nodded, feeling a slight blush at Tsuruko's proximity and the feeling he felt around her.

For a moment she regarded him, she stood so much higher than him, and yet he stood on top of his crushing fears and insecurities to help his friends, and (in her opinion) received so little support or reward for his efforts. His chief victory, finally getting into Tokyo U on his fourth try, was marred by his broken leg that prevented him from attending class or even enjoying new student orientation. Tsuruko had pieced this knowledge together according to what Granny Hina had told her and also to Motoko's letters once properly decoded, so to speak. Shippu slept soundly on her shoulder as she made her decision.

"Wha-wha?" Keitaro's lips sputtered almost soundlessly as Tsuruko bent down and hugged him, firmly but securely. It was not an intimate hug, nor one that wreaked of formality and forced affection. No, this was genuine, if tentative, positive emotion.

"That is for luck tomorrow, Keitaro-san," Tsuruko smiled when she stood back up and took a graceful step back. "Shippu," she raised her voice just a notch, and the crane awakened. "Please escort Keitaro-san back to his room."

-Yes, Mistress.- The sleepy crane yawned and took flight, making certain that his charge started following him back into the forest.

"Good night, Tsuruko-san," Keitaro looked back, bowing his head. "Thank you…"

"Sleep well, Keitaro-san," Tsuruko waved. "You are quite welcome," her smile turned mischievous again, "future brother-in-law."

Keitaro had blushed, sighed, then turned back around to follow Shippu.

When she was alone in the forest clearing, Tsuruko chuckled. Somehow, her spirit felt that much lighter after talking to Keitaro. She had a favorable opinion of him already, even if he needed to be corrected for going along with Motoko's foolish sham, but her conversation with him tonight had only made her… intrigued at this curious little man and the flickers of his ki.

Tsuruko turned to make her own way out of the forest, thinking for the first time in a long while she could sleep soundly that night.

The small clearing was soon silent save for the small electric lamp the illuminated it. The sounds of the forest at night sounded all around… until broken by a slight shifting from the large tree that dominated the clearing and a slight rustling of leaves told a different story. High up in the branch of an old oak, was Motoko, still dressed in her school uniform, reclined on a branch. She had come up there to think after her talk with Keitaro, musing on why she felt the same way now as when her sister had first married Ko. She was about to jump down from her branch when she noticed Tsuruko make her way into the clearing and sit down on the simple stone bench there. Motoko became dead silent waiting for her sister to leave. Much to her surprise, Shippu entered the clearing with Keitaro in tow. Motoko could hear their conversation clearly and, despite her better judgment, she felt actual honest pity for Keitaro when he told Tsuruko about his childhood "Promise Girl" and Narsuegawa's recent actions. Motoko was unsure exactly what she would say to Narsuegawa the next time she encountered her sempai. Then Tsuruko had surprised her even more, by hugging Keitaro and wishing him luck the next morning.

'Urashima-san certainly does have the fighting spirit of a samurai,' Motoko had thought as she watched Tsuruko leave the clearing. She settled back against the tree trunk some more. Maybe she would enjoy the night sky and the forest for just a few minutes longer before heading to bed…

000

Keitaro woke as the first rays of the sun hit the window of the guest room he had been given to stay in during his and Motoko's extended duel with Tsuruko. He had set an alarm on his mobile phone, but now he reached over out of his futon in the early morning gloom to turn it off. He woke about ten minutes before the time he had set. He sighed, this was it. Now or never if he was going to live up to his promise to help Motoko regain her honor and place in her clan or marry her and take care of her as she tried to live the life of an ordinary woman.

He blushed, remembering his talk last night with Tsuruko after Shippu had led him to her. Strangely, he felt better after it, embarrassing though it was when she delved into more personal topics, but he had felt good when she gave him a hug at the end of it. Keitaro replayed their meeting over again in his head, trying to hold on to more of Tsuruko's words; finding comfort in them.

"A lot of what you see in the purely physical, visual sense is very deceiving to a warrior, in fact at times during a fight it might be more beneficial to be blind so as to rely more on more innate senses." Tsuruko said this with one of her trademark quirky, half smiles.

"And what would those be, Tsuruko-sama?" Keitaro had asked.

The half smile on Tsuruko's lovely face turned into a full smile, and Keitaro felt himself instinctively blush at her.

Now, as Keitaro finished dressing in his shinobi garb, he remembered her words. As he opened his glasses' case, he stopped, looked at his face in the mirror, and realized that being without his glasses forced him to focus more intently on what was directly in front of him in a way he would not have otherwise. It forced him to not take what was in front of his eyes for granted.

Silently, he nodded. He closed the case containing his glasses, completed his preparations for the day, quietly left the guest room and then went to where Tsuruko had stated earlier yesterday (after she had soundly thrashed him and Motoko) she would met them for the final showdown.

000

Kitsune watched as Keitaro hit the ground after being knocked back by one of those gales of wind Tsuruko issued from her katana. Motoko kept trying to keep up with her sister's attacks, but it was clear that bit by bit the kendo girl was likely going to face defeat once again, and in front of all of her friends too The Shinto wedding altar just waiting for her and Keitaro.

She and Kentaro Sakata had started slugging back saucers of sake as they waited for Motoko to show up. Keitaro had been there, without his usual glasses on his face, Kitsune noted at their arrival. Tsuruko had briefly joined Keitaro in greeting the "wedding guests" under a signal of truce until Motoko's arrival. Kitsune wore a brave face as she saw Keitaro's eyes confirm that Naru had not come. Kitsune wanted to tell him more, but the fox knew that right now Keitaro needed to be as focused as possible on the duel.

And now, as Kitsune went over to Keitaro's briefly prone form, and checked to make sure he was all right (already he was starting to groan and stir in pain) she noted the black sword in its scabbard laying next to Hinata Inn's manager. It had fallen off his back as Tsuruko struck him with that wind blast. Without thinking, Kitsune found herself reaching over to pick the weapon up. If Tsuruko was intending to claim the sword for herself and deny Keitaro the opportunity to use it; for whatever he may have planned to use it for, then Kitsune would hold it until Keitaro was on his feet. Kitsune picked up the black sword with both hands, unused to handling katanas, Kitsune held it up by the hilt, pulling upwards and did not grip the scabbard tightly enough, and thus the sword was unsheathed part-way, exposing its blade to the open air and morning sky.

"...heh-heh….hehehehehehehehe!" Kitsune immediately began to cackle madly, feeling unlike anything she had ever experienced before, no matter what the chemical she had ingested.

Motoko crossed the training blade she had borrowed from her mother with her sister's Ikazuchi after barely avoiding another ki blast. Almost instantly, she and Tsuruko felt something was very, very wrong.

Tsuruko's eyes widened. 'It cannot be…' she thought.

Motoko caught her sister's change in expression. "...?"

"That is the cursed blade of Hina!" Tsuruko nodded curtly in the direction over Motoko's shoulder.

Motoko never thought for a moment that her sister was trying to deceive her. Both from the feeling they both shared, but also the look on Tsuruko's face.

"You have seen that katana before?" Motoko turned around, the duel forgotten as she and her sister took up defensive positions side by side.

Kitsune, for her part, eyes' glowed red as a cloud aura fully took shape around her body. She simply seemed to be staring straight off into space as she cackled.

Tsuruko gasped. "Of course I know it! That is the sword that nearly brought our clan to ruin and burned down the city of Kyoto!"

Motoko's eyes widened. So that is why she was so uneasy around the blade, but then why did she not deduce the precise nature of the evil and seek to exorcise or purify it?

Keitaro sat up, shaking the cobwebs from his brain as his vision focused on Kitsune in front of him.

"Hehehehehehe!" Kitsune laughed mockingly as she focused her glare on Keitaro.

"Hey, Kitsu-ummm!" Keitaro's lips were immediately muffled as Kitsune's lips covered them and "kissed" him. Almost immediately, his consciousness rapidly faded as he seemed to sink into a dark tunnel. His last halfway coherent thought was feeling as though a foreign presence had wedged its way into his mind and was clearing out anything of value. There was a voice, too, harsh and condescending.

"What a pathetic lesser King! At least you are good for something; being used by me, of course!" Keitaro lacked the presence of mind to wonder at this voice as he collapsed again in a heap on the ground, completely unconscious.

Haruka, seeing what was happening on the battlefield, grabbed Sakata and told him to get everyone and run for some nearby large rocks for cover. The playboy obeyed his boss without question and fortunately the younger girls present did not protest as he led them running away from the spectacle unfolding. In the back of Haruka's mind she congratulated Sakata for being able to react quickly and coherently even with the amount of alcohol he had consumed. Haruka, for her part, took cover behind the large banquet table, trying to keep out of sight of the katana-brandishing Kitsune. She looked over to where Keitaro lay on the ground, wondering if she could collect her cousin/nephew on her back and then retreat. She hoped Motoko and Tsuruko could break the fox free from whatever presence had taken hold of her.

'Hang on, Keitaro!' Haruka thought.

Tsuruko and Motoko stared in shock as "Kitsune" planted a kiss firmly on Keitaro's lips and then left him completely unconscious on the ground.

"The cursed blade of Hina draws life force from any being it can establish physical contact with; resisting the power of even the strongest exorcism!" Tsuruko commented, more than a bit fearful herself. The power contained within the sword was not something to be trifled with.

Motoko listened, but she mostly watched as she formulated which attack would have a chance to break through the demon that had taken hold of Kitsune's body.

In a flash "Kitsune" took up a "crab-walk" position on all four limbs and nimbly scampered over to them. Tsuruko never had a chance to react, whereas Motoko was able to avoid the being's attack by jumping straight up in the air as high as she could and back-flipping away.

Tsuruko barely felt the brush of "Kitsune"'s lips before her consciousness was thrown into a dark cellar and the door locked and barred against her escape.

Motoko watched as her sister's prone form crumpled to the ground. She had landed over where Keitaro was laying on the ground. His immortality was barely kicking in, he groaned loudly where he laid in obvious pain, she doubted he would be on his feet anytime soon.

'Still…' Motoko thought, and remembered what her sister had told her so many years ago as they sat below that tree not too far from where they were now.

"Motoko-han, I want you to grow up and be the best you can be."

Tsuruko had said "best." For years, Motoko always assumed she had meant a great warrior, but in the past several days as she remembered those times Motoko realized there was a deeper meaning to what Tsuruko was telling her given the word choices and the emphasis. Tsuruko always pushed her to be the best and happiest she could possibly be-in whatever path she choose. Motoko's older sister always mentioned there was more than one path of honor and serving one's family and the cause of justice, what was needed was the individual's choice to find their right path and the strength to put their best into it.

Motoko nodded slowly, she looked down at Keitaro stirring on the ground, then up at "Kitsune" cackling as she crab-walked background, clutching that cursed sword that had possessed her.

'I understand now, sister,' Motoko thought as she grabbed Keitaro, hoisted the barely conscious apartment manager up and vaulted him towards Kitsune with all of her might.

"Forgive me!" Motoko called out to both Keitaro and Kitsune, hoping her words would register in the real Kitsune's mind somehow and that Keitaro would forgive her; even if she would never admit it to his face.

Poor Keitaro had almost no time to process things as he flew head-first into "Kitsune" meeting her lips first, and immediately lost consciousness for a third time that morning as he felt more of his lifeforce get yanked out of him.

Motoko took advantage of the distraction, unsheathed the borrowed katana, and ran at full speed.

"SECRET TECHNIQUE EVIL SPLITTING SPIRIT SWORD!"

Motoko sliced once then twice across the front of Kitsune, not touching her physical body, but hitting the aura that had taken control of her.

A flash and a crack issued from the katana in Motoko's hand. The energy that flowed from it made the little hairs on the back of Motoko's neck stand up. Keitaro hit the ground with a thud, and Kitsune with a crumple.

Tsuruko moaned in pain, mumbling something incoherent.

True to form, Keitaro recovered first. He sat up, looking around, then noticed Kitsune laying next to him. "Mitsune!" he called out, rolling over to check her vital signs. Fortunately, the fox of Hinata had already begun stirring.

"Ugh, what happened?" Kitsune mumbled.

"Shh, it's okay now," Keitaro told her. "How you feeling?"

"Worst hangover ever," Kitsune chuckled, then coughed with a queasy look on her face. "But I'll live," she glanced around. "Already I'm feelin' better… Sakata better not have finished all the sake," she grinned.

Keitaro smiled back.

The rest of the Hinata Inn gang soon ran over to Keitaro, Motoko, and Kitsune to see how they were. Motoko rushed to Tsuruko's side, who was already on her feet.

Tsuruko smiled at her sister. "So you two *did* defeat me after all, Motoko-han." She stretched, allowing the residual effects of the energy drain on her ki to fade away. "I can see that since you were able to seal the cursed blade even after it had incapacitated me." She touched Motoko's shoulder. "Your time studying and training in Tokyo was well spent."

"Big Sister, you mean..." Motoko trailed off, she could hardly believe her ears.

Tsuruko nodded. "You are hereby welcomed back into the clan, and are once again heir to the God's Cry dojo."

Everyone around them cheered for Motoko, the raven haired swordswoman/high school schoolgirl blushed in her uniform. Keitaro smiled happily, thankful it was all over, and everyone seemed to have come through it none the worse for wear.

Motoko looked down to where Kitsune still lay on the ground, steadily recovering. She noted the Hina blade in its scabbard; lying inert. She stepped closer to it; no reaction in her ki. She placed a finger on it; still no ki reaction. Finally she picked it up and closed her eyes.

Keitaro, Kitsune, and Tsuruko watched.

"Motoko-han?" Tsuruko asked.

"It is safe, sister. Motoko opened her eyes. "Immense power is in this blade, but it is sealed and the presence has been tamed by me and will obey my ki's commands."

"Then that will be your sword, Motoko-han." Tsuruko bowed her head, she raised it and then eyed both Keitaro and Kitsune. "Keitaro-san and Konno-san, did you two feel or hear anything when you encountered the Hina katana?"

Keitaro and Kitsune shared a look.

"Only thing I heard was laughin'." Kitsune shivered. "Lots and lots of laughin'; a mean, nasty laughing."

Keitaro's brow furrowed. He thought back to before he briefly lost consciousness. "There was a voice… it called me something…"

Tsuruko looked at him intently. "Called you something, Keitaro-san?"

"Yeah," he nodded, closing his eyes. The memory was fading rapidly, like it was being yanked away from his grasp violently. But he fought valiantly against it disappearing completely. "It called me a 'lesser King,'" he opened his eyes, turned to Tsuruko. "Isn't that weird?"

She nodded silently, feeling an odd sensation deep within her. "It is," she looked over to the Hina blade in its scabbard which Motoko held now. "Motoko-han?"

"Yes, sister?" Motoko took a step closer.

"Hold the blade out in front of me, but do not let me touch it, no matter what." Tsuruko stated.

Motoko did what her sister asked of her. Tsuruko held out her hands over the offered blade, just out of reach. She closed her eyes, concentrated. Finally, she sighed, and opened her eyes. "The blade is safe so long as no one else but Motoko-han wields it."

Motoko clutched the sheathed Hina blade close, then she looked to Keitaro. "Urashima-san," she bowed, "you have done me a great service; but I must trouble you and your family-"

"Motoko-chan," Keitaro laughed, waving his hands in front of him, blushing. "Yes, you may keep the sword. Grandmother bequeathed it to me; so now I give it to you."

Motoko blushed. "I thank you," she bowed deeply.

"Good, I know I wouldn't want that thing around, talk about the worst, coldest hangover ever," Kitsune was standing now, stretching with fox-like grace.

"Excuse me, Konno-san," Tsuruko's brow furrowed. "Did you say cold?"

Kitsune nodded. "Yeah. Like a snake runnin' down my back. Why?"

Tsuruko thought on it, it almost felt like there *should* be something amiss, but for some reason when she tried to recall; there was nothing. "Probably just residual energy from the presence that Motoko-han has sealed for all time now."

"You just be keepin' a close eye on that sword, Motoko, 'ya hear?" Kitsune nodded towards Motoko.

"Of course, Konno-san." Motoko bowed to the fox.

Sakata and Haruka each in turn bowed to Motoko and clasped Keitaro's shoulder hard (he winced) in hearty congratulations, Haruka lighting a fresh cigarette and Sakata opening another large bottle of sake; the playboy immediately poured two glasses and gave them to Kitsune and Keitaro, who each took a quick swig.

Su looked at Keitaro in wonder. "Kaytaros! Give us a taste!"

"Yeah, dork! Anything you can have, we can have; right?" Sara piped in.

"You two shouldn't be drinking that!" Shinobu waved her arms around for emphasis.

"Shinobu-chan's right!" Keitaro said, the alcohol giving him some courage. "This is only for adults!"

Haruka nodded in approval at the tone of command in Keitaro's voice, she smiled as she took another drag on her cigarette.

Tsuruko and Motoko watched in interest, Tsuruko more so. Shinobu, true to form, blushed at her sempai calling her name in such a way.

Sakata, giggled like a school boy as he refilled his saucer and took another sip. "Ya tellin' 'em, dude!"

Keitaro gave a pained nod to Sakata. 'He's worse than Kitsune,' he thought.

"Ya right," Kitsune slid up next to Keitaro. "Us adults, eh Kei-kun?" she had just finished her saucer and stood up to make certain she presented her bust in Keitaro's general direction.

Keitaro blushed, feeling the beginnings of a nosebleed. "Well, uh… ah-hem."

"Konno-san!" Motoko turned sharply to Kitsune. "I remind you that you are on sacred grounds, please show a little more respect!"

"Awh!" Kitsune waved her hand in front of Motoko in a patronizing manner. "You need to loosen up and enjoy life more, Motoko-chan!" she opened her eyes a bit more to show Motoko the glint in her eye. "You certainly seemed to like it when you dressed up in *my* French Maid outfit."

Motoko blushed deep red. "That was only because you told me it was the only thing you had that would fit me!"

"You asked for the 'clothes of a common working woman,' dear." Kitsune wagged her finger under Motoko's nose.

Motoko's shoulders slumped, sighing in defeat. "Just forget it, Konno-san."

"'Clothes of a common working woman'... French Maid…." Tsuruko mused, then she smirked. "Yes, please tell me more about this, Konno-san."

Motoko flailed her arms around. "You do not need to know any more, Big Sister!" The look on Motoko's face and her arm motions reminded Keitaro of when Tama-chan usually made an appearance.

Tsuruko laughed, pleasant and musical, her fears forgotten.

000

The next day...

The bullet train had taken no more than a few hours of travel, coupled with a short trolley ride from the station to Hinata Mountain, the gang approached the base of the staircase leading to the Hinata Inn and hot springs. The journey had begun on the high note of Keitaro and Motoko's victory against the legendary Kendo Wolf of Kyoto, Tsuruko Aoyama.

On their train journey Motoko and Keitaro had thanked the rest of the Hinata residents for their congratulations on their victory, but the mood had soured quite quickly for Keitaro when Su turned to him and innocently wondered where Naru was and why she had not attended.

Keitaro had been unable to answer; still upset by the said object (or was that ex object?) of his long time affections. He did not know her whereabouts. It wasn't until Kitsune, who knew exactly why she hadn't been present, elaborated why.

The revelations of Naru's extended absence had been accepted by each of the girls, even Motoko. Each of the girls had taken sneaky looks at Keitaro; prompting him to explain the original reason for her leaving without so much as a goodbye had made each of the girls pause. Pause, and think, but each for differing reasons.

Most were upset and critical of what Naru did. However, Motoko Aoyama leaped to her sempai's defense. Noting Keitaro's sad and withdrawn expression, Motoko had tried to persuade him to go to Narsuegawa family home and see Naru. Keitaro looked up at the serious expression he found in Motoko's face, considered it, but said he just did not think he could. Not now, anyway. Motoko was about to change tactics, perhaps questioning his spinal fortitude as she had in the past when the sneaky fox dropped the biggest bombshell that gave even the Hinata Inn's legendary "I HATE BOYS" kendo girl cause to ponder.

Namely that a certain young Urashima was now sporting an open season ticket thanks to Naru's actions and absence, the conclusion had set each of the girls into deep thought on how to proceed with such developments.

Keitaro sighed, while he knew the underlying reason for the girls' sudden lapse into silence as they digested the information Kitsune had just given everyone, he honestly was not in any mood to think about much of anything at that time. Also, his leg was hurting again and he just wanted to lay down.

The group reached the base of the long stone stairs reaching up to the Inn and being unable to stand the silence any longer Haruka chimed in with her bit of wisdom. "Well, you certainly know how to make things lively around here, nephew." The former housemother turned to Keitaro. "Cheer up Kei, there's plenty more fish in this pond and I'm always down here if you need to talk."

Broken from his thoughts the younger Urashima replied dully: "Umm.. Oh …Thanks.. A-aun…"

Only to be nailed in the head by Haruka who pulled her fan from seemingly thin air and with a subsequent 'THWAP!' Keitaro immediately winced as the fan made contact with his head.

Haruka brushed some stray hairs from his head. "Look, I get that you're hurt and upset over Naru; but that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you. Now buck up, you are a man after all."

Ignoring the pain in his head and leg he offered Haruka a weak smile.

Checking the boy over and seeing him none the worse for wear. Haruka's lips quirked upward in what, for her, could pass for a smile. "Now I have to open the tea shop," she leaned in closer to her nephew and lowered her voice so the others could not hear, "I know it hurts, believe me I know. But time will help and I am here for you." Now giving her nephew an uncommon, but full, smile makes her way over to the back door of her tea shop, leaving the girls and Keitaro to finish their daily work-out of actually climbing the famous Hinata Inn staircase.

As the gang made their way up the staircase Kitsune turns to the rest of the girls. She waited until Keitaro was just out of earshot. She noted Keitaro's body language, and figured he needed some kind of cheering up. She chuckled. "Say, you know… we have to celebrate Kei-kun and Motoko-chan's victory." As she notes the rest nodding in general agreement, Kitsune's face broke out into a trademark fox grin. "Ahn Shinobu-chan can cook some delicious food for us and I have plenty of bottles to go around in my stash too, y'all."

At the mention of her name the bluenette relishes the opportunity to impress her sempai. She blushed, mentally going through the cookbook she had in her head as she considered what would be perfect for the occasion. As she looked ahead to her sempai Shinobu noted the slumped forward set of his shoulders and asked: "Don't you want me to cook for you, sempai?

Silence from Keitaro.

Shinobu's eyes started to water up.

Noting his lack of response. Motoko looked squarely at Keitaro now. She raised her voice. "Urashima! Shinobu wishes to prepare a celebration for us, do you not appreciate her efforts?"

Looking like a deer caught in the headlights Keitaro fell backwards onto his bottom. "Wh…Wh..What Motoko-chan, I didn't hear youuuuuuuuuu?"

Motoko sighed, her patience at an end. The kendoka drew the Hina blade and let out the cry, "Thunderclap Sword Second Strike!" as she sent the poor boy briefly spiralling up in the air a short distance before he landed, almost gently, on his feet.

Keitaro breathed deeply in and out, not knowing whether to be startled that Motoko had decided to go easy on him, or Shinobu's reaction to him spacing out on her.

Hearing the words party and food was enough for Su as she declares to the upset chef, "Don't ya worries Shinomus! If Kaytawo's doesn't wants any foods I'll eats his shares too!" The girls make their way in to begin the preparations for the upcoming festivities while Keitaro tried once again to gather his wits as Kitsune and Motoko for some reason found a transparent excuse to ascend the stairs very slowly in order to keep pace with Keitaro.

A few short hours later and the party was in full swing. Keitaro had still been reluctant to associate with the girls after all that had transpired, but with Shinobu's puppy dog eyes, Motoko's expectantly giving him a stern look amidst crossed arms, and the resident foxes' ability to charm him, he soon relented to a little celebration. It especially helped when said resident fox was charming him by wearing an outfit that accentuated her enticing curves in all the right places.

Kitsune had even helped him "loosen up" as she called it, which in reality meant having a large bottle of Sake poured down his throat by a surprisingly strong Kitsune after he agreed to "a couple sips."

After all that alcohol the Hinata Inn Manager had far less resistance for joining in the celebrations, even Motoko had been happy to join and seem to stay in close proximity to Keitaro, keeping him on edge for a large portion of the night. He still felt responsible for her since this whole incident began. While he was grateful that Motoko was thankful for his assistance and support and seemed to be showing it by attacking him a lot less; he still knew he needed to be on his very best behavior around her.

000

A few days passed and things calmed down back into their usual routines at the Hinata. The residents had fallen back into their daily patterns, but they had agreed upon an unspoken arrangement to keep an eye out for the injured former ronin.

Early in the morning, two figures each with a small bag over their respective shoulders were serenely and leisurely making their way up the staircase of the Hinata-well at least one of them was serene and leisurely as the other could be heard voicing their heated opinion to their travelling companion. The shorter of the two continued a lecture that had begun on the train ride down from the airport; she had not let up even when they had switched trains in Tokyo. "You have to promise not to hurt him, he's had enough of that from what I have heard."

The taller of the two could barely contain her laughter. "Do not worry my friend, I will not harm 'the only man worthy,' as you so well put it back on the island. From our last encounter I found him a most honourable man-though he needs some guidance-he has many great qualities."

With a nod of agreement, the two reach the entrance and ring the bell.

A few dozen minutes earlier everyone had left for their days at school, Kitsune still hadn't risen from another night of, well, being Kitsune. Keitaro basically had the dorm to himself, having just finished breakfast and washing the crockery left for him. He mentally started running down his list of things to do that day, finding he was steadily thinking a little less about Naru's absence. His biggest current concern was how to clean and maintain the Hinata Inn and its grounds with a broken leg.

Keitaro heard the doorbell ring and hobbled his way awkwardly to the door, still a little sore from recent celebrations that had not helped his leg heal. Opening the door the Hinata Inn Manager spoke out of habit. "Welcome to the Hinata Inn Girls' Dormitory, how may I be of assistance?"

The taller of the two visitors answered first. "Greetings Keitaro-san, how have you been?"

Her companion followed suit with a beaming smile, "Onii-chan!"

Pausing for a moment until his visitors registered in his mind Keitaro could only blink. "Tsuruko-sama and Kanako-chan…?" He smiled warmly. "What brings you two here-and wait, how and why are you two travelling together?" Keitaro looked from one to the other.

Tsuruko removed her jingasa, bowing. "Your little sister is here in my service at my new post."

"New post?" Keitaro asked, completely bewildered, but finding he did not mind so much. Opening the door and finding Tsuruko there along with his dear little sister was easily the highlight of his life since returning from Kyoto.

"Yes, Kei-kun," Kanako nodded. "At Granny's suggestion, Tsuruko-sama is here for a… change of scenery. I am here as her servant and guard, and yours, of course." Her eyes bored into him, but unlike some times in the past Keitaro found he was not creeped out by it. In fact, it reminded him of how Kanako always looked at him when they were children.

Keitaro smiled, bowing to both of them, his face a picture of happiness. "Change of scenery? You mean like a short vacation?"

Tsuruko and Kanako laughed.

"Did… I say something funny?" Keitaro shrugged.

"Yes," Tsuruko smirked. "But do not let it bother you." Tsuruko took a deep breath, and retrieved from her gi a letter. She bowed, and handed it to Keitaro. "A letter from your Grandmother."

Keitaro nodded. He looked over at Kanako. "Kana-chan, what is this all about?"

Kanako only looked over at Tsuruko.

Tsuruko Aoyama grinned, wide and generous. Her eyes also held a glint. "That letter, signed by your Grandmother and the Urashima family attorney confirming my appointment as the Hinata Inn's new housemother and assistant manager, effective immediately for an indefinite period of time."

000

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thank you for reading, we hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Chapter 3 is already being written. Any comments, favorites, follows are always appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

"Reforged Chapter 3"

By Y-PenDraig and MakiUra

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu does. This is a non-for-profit work of fanfiction with no monies or profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is intended.

AUTHORS' NOTE ON CONTINUITY: This story uses a mixed manga/anime continuity that starts to branch off from the Burning Blades arc/TV series episode 25. Simply stated, Keitaro's initial arrival at the Hinata Inn and the order he meets the girls is the same as it is in the TV series, as well as Granny Hina's departure from the same. The increased presence of Shirai and Haitani as well as Kentaro Sakata is also as it was in the TV series, as well as Mei, and Moe-Chan. Beyond that, events that occur in the manga should be considered completely canon except for ages; we'll keep to the TV series there.

INTRODUCTION: Y-PenDraig and I welcome you, the reader, to this story. It grew out of discussion between the two of us about Tsuruko Aoyama and a shared desire to tell a good, long story involving her. The regular rating will be T for Teen for the story proper, but owing to the limey/lemon idea that kind of inspired this madness, you will see omake side-stories posted independently that are rated M for Mature.

000

Keitaro sat down in the common room of the Inn after he, with Kanako's assistance, fetched some tea and rice crackers to enjoy once proper greeting formalities were observed. Despite the fact that he knew this would only increase the crazy quotient in his life, he was nonetheless pleased.

"So how did you and Tsuruko-sama meet, Kana-chan?" Keitaro asked as he sipped his tea. Noon was fast approaching, and he knew that Kitsune would soon be sauntering downstairs in search of a strong cup of coffee or caffeinated soft drink to help get her day started. He wanted to get as much information as possible from Tsuruko and Kanako, as well as tell them what to expect, before anyone else walked in.

"Well," Tsuruko placed her index finger on her chin. "Just over a year ago your grandmother asked me to help your little sister with some nightmares she was having."

Kanako nodded soberly. Silently thanking Tsuruko for her discretion in the matter.

Keitaro nodded as well, saying nothing as he recalled that Kanako had battled nightmares periodically ever since her adoption.

In his hands, Keitaro had the now opened letter Tsuruko had presented him at the door. Sure enough, it was precisely what she had stated it to be. 'Well,' Keitaro thought, 'there will be more help around the Inn.' For which Keitaro was most thankful as it was not easy for him and Shinobu to handle.

"Yes, onii-chan," Kanako smiled, "Tsuruko-sama was of immense help."

Keitaro chuckled, his thoughts drawn back. "Seems I owe you a lot of thanks, Tsuruko-sama." He carefully placed his tea cup down, rose slowly with effort, then (noting Tsuruko rising as well) bowed as deep as he could with his cast and crutches.

"As always, Keitaro-san, you are most welcome." Tsuruko replied. She exhaled. "Now, I do think we should relax formalities as I and Kanako-san will be living and working here for a while to come."

Keitaro nodded. "After our tea I will show you the office."

Kanako's made a questioning face. "Office, Big Brother? I thought Granny made that into a coat closet."

"It was, but I found… running things out of the Manager's room to be… a lot of trouble." Keitaro smiled wanly.

Tsuruko nodded. "I imagine it would be; a Girls' Dormitory run by a male presents it's own set of challenges."

"You don't know the half of it." Keitaro chuckled.

Kanako matched her brother's chuckle, but inwardly she recalled the bits of information she had been able to absorb since her brother took over the Inn from their grandmother. Indeed, she had deduced that part of the reason for this proposal of Granny Hina was to do something about the present situation in the house while also helping Tsuruko occupy her time in this critical time in the swordswoman's life. Kanako's face now took on a small smile, she wondered which Hinata girl will be the first one she will meet face to face.

A loud yawn echoed throughout the common room.

"Kei baby!" A voice drawled from up the stairs. "Good mornin'!"

Keitaro looked up, then over at the clock on the wall. "Um, good afternoon, Kitsune!"

"Ah ya, right." Kitsune laughed as she sauntered down the stairs, dressed in her usual attire for watching the races. She stopped cold as her almost closed eyes registered to her sleep-fogged mind that the Hinata had visitors.

"Tsuruko-sama," she breathed, bowing. "My, what a pleasant surprise, here to test kendo girl again?"

Tsuruko smiled, rising to meet Kitsune's bow. "No, Konno-san." She said no more.

Kitsune's attention turned to Kanako, who now rose to bow properly and deeply to Kitsune. "And I do not believe we have met," Kitsune opened the conversation as she bowed, "Mitsune Konno, Kitsune for short."

Keitaro cleared his throat. "Ah-hem, yes, this is my little sister Kanako Urashima, Kitsune."

Kitsune's eyes opened wide. "P-pleased to meet 'ya," she bowed again at this new development.

"Likewise, Konno-san." Kanako bowed in kind.

"I remember Granny tellin' us all about ya." Kitsune smiled. "She said you were quite an interesting young lady."

"I hope in a good way, Konno-san." Kanako grinned.

Keitaro smiled. Kitsune noted that it was one of the more genuine smiles she had seen from him in a while.

A knock on the front door was heard. Keitaro turned towards it. "Who could that be?" he wondered aloud.

"Much too early for any of the girls to be home, sugah," Kitsune drawled. "Unless they're sick…"

Keitaro's eyes widened. He immediately went over to the front door, opened it.

"Aun-er, Haruka!" Keitaro called. "Isn't it lunch rush?"

"I see we have new residents… and companions." Haruka stated evenly, for once not smoking as she usually tried to curb her habit during rush times at her business. She waved some sheets of paper in front of Keitaro's face that he recognized as being from the tea shop's office fax machine. "Granny just sent this."

"Yeah, Tsuruko-san also brought a letter from Granny."

Haruka nodded downward. "These two were also wandering around the grounds, too."

Keitaro glanced down. "Shippu! Kuro!"

"Kue! Qwaw!" The crane squawked. -Reporting as ordered by the mistress.-

"She's right inside the common room enjoying some tea and snacks; I saved some for you, too." Keitaro smiled.

-I will see myself in, son.- Shippu flapped his wings and flew gracefully and efficiently into the house.

"Meow!" Kuro purred as he slinked around and rubbed against Keitaro's pants' leg.

He reached down to pet and rub behind Kuro's ears. "Oh hey, Kuro!" Greetings finished, the cat scampered inside to find his Mistress.

Keitaro looked up to meet Haruka's perplexed gaze. "What the hell was that all about?" She asked, pointing a finger at him.

"Oh yeah," Keitaro chuckled, "seems I understand what Tsuruko-san's crane is saying now."

"... this doesn't strike you as the least bit odd?" Haruka sighed.

"Is it any more odd than what usually happens around here?"

"No, I suppose not." Haruka shrugged.

"It's probably not so different than how Tama-chan and Mutsumi-chan talk." Keitaro rationalized.

"I thought the operative theory around the house was that Turtle Lady is sweet-"

"Yeah," Keitaro nodded enthusiastically in the affirmative.

"-but crazy."

Keitaro only gave an exaggerated shrug in response.

Haruka sighed. She was only stalling the inevitable. Haruka did wonder why Keitaro, with everything he had lately been through (and was preparing to go through), seemed so at ease about the developments she had just read about in the faxes she just received. Developments that would have to be agreed to and signed by the participants in person with formalities observed. Namely in contracts that would be arriving by courier the next day to be immediately returned to Granny Hina after being approved by the family attorney and notarized by a Justice of the Peace.

'This will cause a shit-ton of problems around here,' Haruka thought. "Well, I better come in and make my greetings." 'And start to talk down Kanako-chan from kicking someone's ass when they come home tonight.' Haruka would never admit it to anyone, but she dreaded this.

Keitaro nodded. "Yeah, already have the tea and snacks ready. Not anything nearly as good as yours or Shinobu-chan's, but-"

"Thank you." Haruka quickly bowed, and Keitaro returned it. She had her way of telling her nephew to shut up without a fan. She walked in the door and deposited her regular work shoes and put on her usual house slippers.

The two Urashimas walked into the common room.

"Morning' Haruka!" Kitsune smiled, perhaps a bit too easily for Haruka's expectations.

Kanako looked up. "Ah, cousin Haruka!" She smiled, rising and giving a bow. "It is good to see you again."

Tsuruko rose as well, bowing with a smile. "Good to see you again, Haruka-san."

Haruka stopped. Kanako seemed… different since the last time she had seen her. The last time they had spoken had been tense, to put it lightly. Haruka returned the bow, "you seem well, Kana-chan. And you too, Tsuruko-san."

"I am well, much better than last time I was here." Kanako smiled brightly.

Haruka pursed her lips in thought momentarily. "So I see, good to hear." 'She seems much more calm and centered-given what's in the fax I am surprised she isn't bouncing off the walls right now.' She briefly opened up the ream of paper she had folded in her hand. "Granny Hina just sent this, she has the family attorney arriving tomorrow to confirm this arrangement."

"That sounds lovely, does it not, Keitaro-san?" Tsuruko smiled.

"Yeah, it sounds great!" Keitaro smiled, shifting where he stood on his crutches.

Haruka looked from him, to Kanako, to Tsuruko, to Kitsune and to the clock. 'Everyone seems to be digesting all this information very well,' Haruka thought. The time said she had to go back to the shop right now and help out Sakata. She desperately needed more help, even if she could hardly afford to pay Kentaro as it was. "Well," she threw on a half-smile out of politeness, ten o'clock tomorrow morning, I will see you all then." Haruka bowed, wishing the newcomers to the Inn a good night and almost rushed out the door, all the while thinking she needed both a good cigarette, and a good beer along with it.

Once Haruka was gone, Kitsune looked at Tsuruko and Kanako as Shippu and Kuro took their places with their mistresses. "Well, how long you two are plannin' on staying? There's always plenty of room at the table and in the hot spring."

"Indefinitely." Kanako replied, smiling.

"Indeed," Tsuruko smirked.

"Kei hon?" Kitsune turned to Keitaro.

Keitaro nodded. "That's right, Granny wants Tsuruko-san and Kana-chan to work here for a while."

"... work as what?" Kitsune asked, dumbfounded.

"Well," Keitaro laughed. He gestured to Tsuruko, "work as the Inn's new housemother and assistant manager," then to Kanako, "and her servant."

Kitsune's eyes opened wide, she opened and closed her mouth before she regained her legendary fox charm. "Um, ah, yeah… woohoo!" She fumbled around in her pants pockets for some fans, broke them out and waved them. "These will have to do until tonight when a proper welcome celebration can be had!"

"That sounds like fun," Keitaro said pleasantly. "But the party can't go on too late since we have to be up and down at Haruka's by ten to sign the employment contracts."

Tsuruko touched her finger to her chin. "I do not wish to burden Shinobu-chan with too much cooking and cleaning, either."

"We can order out," Kanako smiled over to her brother and Kitsune. "Our treat to the residents."

Keitaro bowed. "Thank you, Kana-chan… Tsuruko-san."

Kitsune laughed pleasantly, with effort. 'What will kendo girl think?' she thought as she found herself eyeing the clock.

000

Kitsune mulled over the new developments and the possible scenarios stemming from them as the early afternoon marched towards evening and she accompanied Keitaro on a tour and overview of the Hinata Inn, starting with the aforementioned office/former coat closet. Several times Kitsune thought of questions to ask Tsuruko and Kanako about what they knew about running or maintaining the dormitory, but she found the two readily supplying answers to Keitaro as he happily showed Tsuruko around, as Kanako reacquainted herself with things after her time away.

Kanako, Kitsune found out, had a good bit of cleaning and household repair/maintenance skills owing to her not only helping her and Keitaro's parents in the family's confectionary kitchen, she had also learned how to help out around the house and make minor repairs in her time travelling with her grandmother. There was something else that stuck out in Kitsune's mind though; it was the fact that Kanako knew the name of each and every plant on the Inn's grounds; in Latin.

Tsuruko, of course, knew a good deal about cleaning and repair work through her years growing up at the Aoyama family compound and her service to the dojo. To Kitsune's further surprise, they also volunteered to assist Shinobu with laundry as well as cooking, but both admitted they had no talent for sweets.

"We'll leave that to you and this amazing Shinobu-chan, Big Brother." Kanako winked to Keitaro, who just smiled and nodded, his wizardly with desserts already known and appreciated around the Hinata Inn.

Keitaro had laughed, his only worries were Naru's still painful absence and wondering just why Kitsune was hanging around them as they toured the Inn. It could hardly be called simple courtesy as for several hours they had mostly gone over tedious maintenance and cleaning details; things the fox would typically avoid at all costs. But, all in all, Keitaro was definitely looking forward to dinner tonight.

'Motoko-chan should be happy her sister will be here for a while, they were getting along so much better when we left Kyoto,' as the four settled back into the common room to await the return of the younger residents from school. Keitaro contemplated over things as he put away the Inn's ledger, maintenance schedule, resident dossiers, manual, and even blueprints after giving Tsuruko and Kanako the quick overview and making certain they knew where to find them if need be. Not for the first time, he marveled at his grandmother's unusual propensity for documentation and record keeping; she really should have been an accountant or an economist.

Kitsune refrained from having anything to drink so far that day save for coffee and tea. 'There are times when sobriety is to be preferred; at least until the first piece of furniture is smashed, I reckon,' Kitsune thought. The conversation amongst the four was light, and Kitsune hoped her good-natured quips were appreciated by Tsuruko and, in particular, Kanako. The fox was certainly welcoming of new residents, she just wondered if the older and younger sisters of existing residents was necessarily the best addition for the Inn right now. Naru would return from her family's home soon, and Kitsune knew it would be a difficult homecoming for Keitaro as well as her.

Her worries were soon derailed by the rising sing-song of voices as Sara, Su, and Shinobu arrived home. "We're homes!" Su called out as the door opened. "Mecha-Tama and I are gonna do some practice runnies!"

"Hey dork! Hope you took it easy today, 'cause I want to play Rumble Bosses with you after homework! Best three out of five!" Sara challenged.

"Sempai! Do you want a snack?" Shinobu's smile and blush could not be mistaken, even if not seen. The sounds of their shoes going to their places could be easily discerned.

Tsuruko and Kanako shared a conspiratorial smile. Tsuruko had decided to make certain to conceal their footwear when Keitaro had gone off to the bathroom and Kitsune had gone to make more tea for everyone.

"Girls, we're in here with a couple of guests we'd like you three to meet!" Keitaro called, smiling.

After the girl's put house slippers on, they trotted into the common room and, even for them, stopped dead in their tracks.

Su blinked once, then grinned wide, and ran over behind the couch where Tsuruko was sitting and gave the Aoyama swordswoman a hug around her shoulders. "Tsurummmus comebacks to plays! Missed yous!"

Tsuruko returned the backward shoulder hug with a smile from the young Molmolian princess. "I missed you too, Su-chan."

Shinobu's mouth hung open, before she smiled. "So, ah, Tsuruko-sama," she bowed deeply. "I am sorry, do you need-"

"Tea? No thank you, Shinobu-chan, your sempai and Konno-san here has taken more than adequate care of formalities and hospitality." Tsuruko nodded towards Keitaro and Kitsune. "You have taught them well on tea."

Keitaro smiled at Shinobu. "I learn from the best, thank you, Shinobu-chan."

"Hey, I know a thing or two about things other than sake and horses thanks to you, Shinobu-chan.!" Kitsune winked at Shinobu.

The petite bluenette turned three shades redder on the spot.

Sara's grin turned mischievous as she looked from her peers to Tsuruko, then to Keitaro. "So you get to gawk at Motoko-sempai's Big Sis even more, don't you, dork?"

Keitaro was unfortunate enough to have been sipping some tea in that moment, sputtered. "Er, um… ah, wha?"

Tsuruko laughed. "You are such a darling little kidder, Sara-chan."

"Though I do believe calling my big brother a dork is not necessarily called for."

Everyone, save Tsuruko, turned to Kanako. Tsuruko kept her attention on Sara.

"And who are you?" Sara pointed at Kanako.

Kanako stood up, her black silk skirt and blouse dryly swishing as she stood gracefully. She bowed deeply to Sara, Shinobu, and Su. "My name is Kanako Urashima," she bowed deeply. "Keitaro-onii-chan's younger sister."

Once again the three youngest Hinata Girls were stunned to silence. Su, again, recovered first. "Yays! I have a new Big Sisters!" She ran up, jumped up and soon was wrapped securely around Kanako; piggy-back ride style.

Kanako grimaced. "Likewise… I guess. But," Kanako shifted the weight of Su on her shoulders a bit, "you don't need to wrap yourself around me," she grunted a bit as Su tittered, the MolMol girl tightening her grip, "so… tight."

"Su-chan…" Tsuruko began.

"It is all right, Tsuruko-sama," Kanako stated.

"What's wrongies?" Su asked. "Kaytaros can easily take me on his backies, and also my love-kicks!"

In a flash with one hand Kanako reached up and gently but firmly unlatched Su from her back and set her down on the couch. "Su-san, you will find that with our arrival here that some things will change."

Su, for once in her life, briefly had no reaction. "What do you means?"

Tsuruko stood up. She smiled at each of the younger girls in turn. It was a smile of genuine warmth but also steel. "We are here to assist Keitaro-san in the management of the Inn."

Sara and Shinobu shared an astonished look. "Wha-what?" they both managed at the same time.

Su giggled, enjoying the looks on her friends' faces.

"I will be the new Housemother, starting today, and Kanako-san will be my servant and guard." Tsuruko lowered her voice a bit. "Which means we are here to assist and serve the manager."

Keitaro instinctively blushed, and chuckled awkwardly at the word choice. "Well, um… heh, I appreciate the help."

"Yeah, I'll bet!" Sara pointed from Keitaro to Kanako and then to Tsuruko.

"I… certainly welcome both of you," Shinobu bowed deeply to Tsuruko and Kanako.

Kanako returned the bow with a smile, as did Tsuruko.

There was uncomfortable silence that fell on the common room then. Finally, Kitsune sprang up. "Well girls, how about we go grab some more snacks and tea and we can settle down and hear all about our new housemother and housemother helper, hmmm?" Kitsune finished that with a prompting look at Tsuruko and Kanako.

Tsuruko smiled, a brief glimmer in her eye. "Of course, Konno-san."

"A grand idea," Kanako clasped her hands together, also giving Kitsune a quick look.

Kitsune smiled back, her eyes opening a bit more, she turned back to Su, Shinobu, and Sara. "Come on, sugahs! Let's hop to it!"

000

Motoko walked up the long stone stairs of the staircase in a good mood. Since besting her big sister in battle, she had returned to her studies at Rieka High School with a new sense of… purpose? A new center. While Naru's absence, and Keitaro's refusal to go after her was concerning to her, she eventually conceded that perhaps Keitaro knew what was best in this regard. Naru had, by many standards, made her feelings clear. Not choosing a course of action was in itself a choice. Motoko also was starting to dwell more and more on Kitsune's statement when they returned home as well as her actions at the party. Motoko could not quite put her finger on why, but it did alarm her slightly with just how… open the fox was being with the Hinata Inn manager; without asking for money or a deferment on paying rent.

'It does make a certain amount of sense,' a well-seasoned, sober voice in the back of her mind said. 'Konno-san was the foremost advocate of pushing Naru-sempai and Urashima together. If that is not to be, then should she not have a clear path in Naru-sempai's stead?'

'Hell no!' A much more fierce competing voice shouted down the other one in the recesses of her mind.

Motoko shook her head, this was a distraction. She needed to practice, meditate, and focus. She was just working through residual emotions from such a strange and trying ordeal. She just needed to get back to her routine and everything would be just fine, right?

Right?

'Well, for one thing, you have not properly begun inducting Urashima-san into the God's Cry School of Kendo yet.' That fierce voice in her mind jeered at her. 'He *should* be *your* student, after all that has transpired.'

Motoko blinked, immediately without warning that blush colored her cheeks that she had felt during her first encounter with Keitaro after she returned home from Kendo camp to find him the new manager. That same blush also snuck up on her more times than she would ever, ever admit during the saga with Tsuruko. She took a few deep breaths and remembered her calming exercises. Routine, practice, and focus, that is what she needed.

Right?

Motoko was still dueling with these thoughts when she reached the front door of the Hinata Inn. Hell, she was still deep in thought after her house slippers were on and she had given her familiar greeting to the house and its residents; even its (she still told herself, however hollow it sounded) perverted manager. What greeted her when she walked into the common room was something that made Motoko honestly question her sanity.

There, in an exact same tableau of the scene when she had last come home from school to find something out of the ordinary (more so than usual for the Hinata Inn, that is) was her older sister sitting in the exact same position, with the same expression on her face sipping a cup of tea, with all the other Inn residents sitting around in the exact same position wearing the same clothes.

"Motoko's homes!" Su happily declared, raising both hands to the air.

"Aahah," Motoko looked over to Su bouncing happily, Motoko smiled thinly after taking a breath. "Is this some kind of projection of yours, Su-chan?"

"Whats?" Su asked, honestly taken aback by Motoko's question.

Motoko nodded towards everyone else sitting on the couches. It seemed everything was just the same except for the lack of presence of Haruka. Su should have gotten that detail right. She took an even breath. "I know this is one of your new inventions, Su-chan."

Keitaro looked up from where he was seated. "Motoko-chan, are you feeling alright?"

"Nopes, Motokos, no invention!" Su jumped up and down.

"Then this must be some kind of presence that is shielding itself from my ki," Motoko raised her voice with each word.

Tsuruko giggled. "I admire your understandable-though misguided-wariness, Motoko-han. I am no 'projection' nor am I a figment of some spirit masquerading as your sister." Her smirk deepened as she was gratified that her idea to "hide" her wooden sandals and Kanako's boots was bearing such succulent fruit. She made a mental note to tell their mother about this in her first letter home.

Motoko sighed. "A figment *would* say that-"

"-but a figment would not have these," Tsuruko stood, reaching inside her gi and gracefully extracting a handful of photographs.

Motoko's eyes widened.

"Cool, pictures!" Sara exclaimed.

"Whees!" Su and Sara took up positions behind the couch to better see the pictures Tsuruko held in her hand.

Shinobu, sharing Keitaro's concern, simply looked on at the expression on Motoko's face.

Kitsune sighed. Maybe she should have had that late afternoon drink after all.

"Let us see, let us sees!" Su and Sara sing-songed.

'Anything but those,' Motoko thought miserably.

"Wow, look at that pizza shaped hat Motoko-sempai is wearing!" Sara gasped.

"Almost as bigs as her heads!" Su tittered.

"Now, now," Tsuruko said as she laid the pictures out on the coffee table. "Motoko-han has deprived everyone one of you for too long the joy of seeing her all dressed up for her first job."

Motoko's right eye twitched. "Okay… I believe you *are* my Big Sister."

Everyone, save Keitaro, took a look at the pictures. Truth be told, as Kitsune and Shinobu told Motoko; she looked pretty good in the pizza shop worker uniform. Sara and Su immediately took to asking Motoko questions about the pizzas she made and while the kendo girl took pains to be diplomatic; it was plain to be heard that she thought pizza to be the worst culinary creation ever imported into Japan.

"Keitaro-san?" Tsuruko asked sweetly. "Feel free to have a look."

"Oh, it's okay." Keitaro chuckled. "I'm sure Motoko-chan looks great."

Motoko sighed. "Urashima, it is fine. It is a bit embarrassing, but nothing a samurai cannot easily tolerate."

Keitaro glanced down. "Oh, I would not want to embarrass you, even a little, Motoko-chan."

A hint of red returned to Motoko's cheeks at that.

Tsuruko clapped. "A true gentleman, through and through," she giggled.

"Perhaps you should follow his lead, Big Sister." Motoko smiled, a grin resembling plastic that showed a bit too much teeth.

This only prompted Tsuruko to laugh more.

"Does… mother know you are here for another visit?" Motoko ventured when she resigned herself to her sister's laughter at her expense.

"She does, but it is not for 'another visit.'" Tsuruko threw a look to her dark-haired, black-silk attired traveling companion.

"...?" The unasked question was plain on Motoko's face.

"I will be, at Granny Hina's direction, taking over the combined duties of housemother and assistant manager of the Inn, effective today." Tsuruko recited, as it reading off a grocery list.

Motoko fainted, sprawling in a heap onto the couch next to her.

"Motoko-chan!" Keitaro slid to the floor next to her with a wince as he worked around the cast on his leg, paying no heed to his crutches. Noting that Motoko was fine, and already starting to wake up, he looked up at Tsuruko then at Kanako.

"Was it something I said?" Tsuruko asked incredulously, touching a finger to her chin in deep thought.

000

"I am fine, Shinobu-chan," Motoko said as she took a sip of water from the cup that she had been offered.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" The dark haired girl Motoko had never met held up three.

"Three," Motoko replied politely, if a bit tersely. "Now may I ask your name?"

"You may," the girl smiled. "Promise you will do your best not to faint once more when I answer you, brave samurai of the Aoyama clan."

Tsuruko chuckled.

Motoko simply gave her sister and the dark haired girl before her a dirty look.

Kitsune sighed, the term 'dog and pony show' coming to mind as Tsuruko and her retainer toyed around with Motoko.

Motoko waited in polite silence.

The dark haired girl bowed low. "My name is Kanako Urashima; Keitaro's sister."

"... really?" Motoko asked, in an almost disappointed tone.

"And also your big sister's guard and servant." Kanako continued.

"Surprising." Motoko commented honestly, but dryly.

Sara pointed to Kanako. "Kanako-san?"

"Yes?" Kanako turned to the red-haired girl.

Sara only pointed to her own head of hair.

Kanako picked up on it. "Ah, why is my hair different from Keitaro-onii-chan?"

Keitaro chuckled. "I'll take that one, Kana-chan." He pointed at his brown hair. "Kana-chan was adopted by my parents when she was seven and I was ten."

Everyone nodded slowly.

"So…." Motoko returned her attention to Tsuruko. "Does mother know about this?"

Tsuruko nodded. "She thinks it is a grand idea."

"... what about Aunt Hime?"

"She detested the idea!" Tsuruko grinned, remembering Aunt Hime's 'explosion' when she was informed of Tsuruko taking Granny Hina up on this most peculiar employment offer.

"Will mother be all right dealing with Aunt Hime on her own?" Motoko asked.

"She *is* our mother after all, Motoko-han." Tsuruko gave her a look.

Motoko nodded slowly. Their mother was very much an "iron fist in an apron" type woman. "Well big sister, how long will we have the pleasure of you here with Urashima-san's sister?"

"The appointment is indefinite," Tsuruko said, then thought for a bit, "but perhaps a neat dividing line might be… until your college graduation?"

Motoko calmly told herself that that answer was designed to get a rise out of her. Cautioning herself not to take the bait, Motoko smiled widely. "Why not longer? There is plenty of room."

"Why thank you, Aoyama-san," Kanako politely interjected. "Perhaps we can stay right through all of you girls' weddings and the births of your first children."

Tsuruko giggled. "Why stop there? We can stay right through everyone's retirement."

Keitaro and everyone else laughed. Some of the tension lifting, Motoko turned to Keitaro. "Urashima-san, have you selected their rooms yet?"

Keitaro nodded. "I have." He beamed proudly at his proactivity in his managerial duties.

Motoko put on that toothy plastic smile again. 'Please not on the same floor as me, please not on the same floor as me…'

Kanako cleared her throat.

Keitaro turned to his dark-haired sister. "Yes, I followed your 'suggestion,' Kana-chan."

"The rooms are together on the second floor..." Keitaro said.

Motoko inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"... right next to the entrance to the deck." Keitaro completed.

'Curses!' Motoko thought miserably, realizing that every time she went out to practice she would pass by her sister's room.

Tsuruko turned to Motoko, a tone of utter sweetness in her voice: "Is it not grand, Motoko-han? I will be able to consistently give feedback on your kendo and train with you."

"Spectacular, Big Sister." Motoko nodded, mentally preparing herself for the light but persistent teasing about Keitaro that her sister had begun embarking upon during their duel in Kyoto.

"You will also get to see a practitioner of the Urashima arts in action, Motoko-sama." Kanako smiled.

Motoko quirked an eyebrow upward. "The… Urashima… arts?" her tone took on an air of incredulity.

Keitaro chuckled as he ran his hand through his wavy brown hair, sheepish. "... just some old family teachings."

"Really now, hon?" Kitsune grinned at Keitaro, winking. "Been hidin' something from us, sugah?"

Keitaro held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Really, it's nothing you probably did not already see from Granny around the house."

Kanako nodded. "Granny Hina is a grandmaster."

Kitsune and Motoko shared a look. The expression on their faces told the whole story.

Keitaro adjusted his glasses. "You mean she never said anything or did anything in front of you?"

Kitsune and Motoko shook their heads in the negative.

"No back-flips, tree-climbings, or bare-knuckle boxing?" Keitaro was only naming a few of his grandmother's skills.

The same negative response from Kitsune and Motoko.

"Interesting," Kanako remarked, turning to Keitaro. "Why wouldn't she, onii-chan?"

Keitaro shrugged, bewildered.

"Oh, I am certain she had her reasons." Tsuruko shook her head. "Hina Urashima always has a reason for everything she says or does; or does *not* say or *do.*"

"I certainly have experience with the last one." Keitaro snorted.

Shinobu looked up at the clock. She rose with a deep bow to everyone, in particular "Ah… if everyone will excuse me," she said shyly, "I have to get dinner prepared."

Kitsune leaned over towards Shinobu. "We can order out, darlin' You can take a night off."

Shinobu stopped, utterly shocked at the suggestion. "No, no!" She shook her head in the negative vehemently. "This is a welcome meal; I will do my best!"

Tsuruko smiled, bowing to Shinobu. "I have looked forward to another one of your meals, Shinobu-chan."

Shinobu blushed sharply.

"If I may, I would like to assist Maehara-san," Kanako bowed shortly to her mistress.

"You have my permission, Kanako-san." Tsuruko smiled. "There are still some items for myself and Keitaro-san to go over."

Keitaro smiled, it seemed like the best thing ever to him in that moment.

000

Ordinarily, Shinobu would have shyly-but firmly-refused the offer of help from someone whether they be guest or resident. She had claimed the Hinata's kitchen and laundry room upon her arrival at the Hinata, and she had protected them both jealously from "outsiders." But, Shinobu was starting to learn the value of information gathering, as well as expediency, so Kanako's offer was welcome. She imagined that her sempai would need a good meal to help put today's madness in perspective, and she would provide it. What better way than to have his little sister help prepare dinner, while she also pumped the dark haired girl for information about Keitaro at the same time?

What Shinobu did not count on was Kanako having the exact same plan.

"So, Maehara-san," Kanako began as she swiftly and gracefully started getting out the pots and pans that Shinobu had indicated would be needed for that night's meal. "I heard from my grandmother that you are a more recent resident here than the others."

Shinobu nodded, turning back to look at Kanako over her shoulder. "Y-yes. I cannot thank sempai and your grandmother enough for allowing me to stay."

Kanako laughed. "It was all Big Brother's doing. Granny just supported his decision when she found out about it from Haruka." Kanako favored the bluenette with a steady eye. "But she was elated when she found out just who this junior high school girl was that onii-chan had opened the Inn's doors to in exchange for cooking and laundry."

Shinobu looked down. "I didn't think she would remember..."

"Of course she remembers you, Maehara-san." Kanako laughed. "When you were young you used to happen up the stairs to the Inn all the time, or at least with your mother or father when the Inn was open to regular guests."

Shinobu smiled, memories of those times flooding back to her. "... You can call me Shinobu."

Kanako bowed. "And you can call me Kanako."

After a brief shared smile, the two of them set about dinner preparations. Finally, both decided to ask the question that was at the forefront of their minds.

"How is my brother?"

"How is my sempai?"

Both questions had been asked simultaneously, causing both Shinobu and Kanako to stop, blush briefly, then chuckle a bit at their shared faux pas.

"You go first," Kanako nodded.

Shinobu bit her lower lip a bit. "I mean… how is my sempai today?"

Kanako considered for a moment. "He was very happy to see us."

"... he's been through alot lately," Shinobu looked down.

"So I have heard, but only some of it," Kanako said gently, taking a step closer to Shinobu. The dark haired girl lowered her voice. "Tell me, how does he get along with a house full of women..?"

"Well, fine, when he isn't getting into trouble with Naru-sempai or Motoko-sempai-oops!" Shinobu blushed sharply, her mouth firmly planting itself over her traitorous mouth. Why had she said that? Perhaps it was the manner or tone of the wording of Kanako's question of her, but Shinobu found herself looking up at the older girl. "I… can't believe I just said that; I am sorry, I don't want to cause more problems for sempai."

Kanako carefully digested what Shinobu just said. Her Grandmother's intelligence and the letters from Haruka had indicated much the same thing. But Keitaro "getting into trouble" with Naru and Motoko did not, by itself, explain Shinobu's reaction behind her answer to Kanako's question.

Kanako took another step closer to the bluenette, she leaned down a bit to put her at eye level with Shinobu. "You can tell me, Shinobu-san. How can anything you say cause more problems for Keitaro-onii-chan?"

Shinobu gulped audibly. "It's just… when he trips over, it seems he always falls into us… and…"

Kanako softly smiled. "Yes, that is my brother all right."

"... they just get so angry."

"Naru-sempai and Motoko-sempai?" Kanako asked. "What about Konno-san?"

"She just tries to get out of paying rent or mooches money from him."

Kanako nodded, that certainly fit Granny Hina's description of Kitsune.

"But she's been better to him lately," Shinobu looked down, "a lot better, actually…"

"That is good," Kanako carefully gauged Shinobu's reaction as she spoke of Keitaro. 'Quite the crush she has,' Kanako thought wistfully. She stilled her emotions, "Shinobu-san, what about Narsuegawa-san and Aoyama-san?"

The bluenette domestic sighed, "Motoko-sempai has gotten much better towards him, too." She admitted this with wistfulness of her own. "Naru-sempai, though…" Shinobu shook her head. "I just do not understand her."

"Oh?" Kanako asked.

"She can be so kind, easy-going, and compassionate one moment," Shinobu said, then shrugged. "But the next moment the exact opposite, especially concerning men. Cross that with Keitaro-sempai's… nature… and, well…"

"What happens?" Kanako prompted. She wanted to hear it from someone who witnessed it personally.

"They hit him. Hard, sometimes." Shinobu looked down, almost whispering. "Mostly Naru-sempai, but sometimes Motoko-sempai too… though, again, Motoko-sempai has been much better towards him too lately. It doesn't happen all the time, and we can tell sempai has special… healing abilities, but still… he does not deserve it."

Kanako stilled her emotions. She had mentally prepared herself for the truth, but still it hurt. She, not for the first time, felt that she should have come here when Keitaro had first arrived. Kanako knew, almost hearing Tsuruko's voice in her head, that that would have been disastrous for all involved, but still her heart felt she had not been there when her brother needed her the most. Kanako put on a warm, comforting smile for Shinobu. "Things will be different here from now on."

Shinobu looked up. Something about the way Kanako spoke gave her pause. "... what do you mean, Kanako-san?"

"Tsuruko-sama and I will make sure nobody mistreats Big Brother; starting today." Kanako spoke firmly.

"Why do you care so much about how sempai is doing here? I mean… it's not as if his parents have ever come down for a visit; to see how he was doing… Granny Hina already left on her trip when I moved in…" Shinobu looked down. Having family relations that were less than perfect (to say the least) was one reason why she felt such a connection to Keitaro and even to the other girls.

"Granny Hina and our parents do care," Kanako said. "If Granny did not care, she would not have sent us here," she smiled. "And Keitaro and my parents do love each other; they are just very different personalities from Keitaro."

Shinobu looked up, studying the dark haired older girl before her, dressed so comfortably gothic in her black silk dress. Something was nagging her in the back of her mind. "You talk like… I have never heard any girl talk about their older brother before."

A small, almost wistful smile crossed Kanako's lips. "You make a brave show of hiding your crush for my brother."

Shinobu blushed sharply, looking down. She said nothing.

"But rest assured," Kanako said, a touch remotely. "I love my dear onii-chan, yes, and while we are only adopted; he *is* still my brother."

"... I… I did-not-mean!" Shinobu looked up, blushing even more at realizing the hidden, taboo implication implied in her question's wording.

Kanako laughed. Shinobu was just too easy. She was going to enjoy this. "It's fine, Shinobu-san. Really." After all, Tsuruko never said she could not have a little bit of fun teasing, now did she?

Shinobu visibly relaxed. "I am glad… we can be friends." Her cheeks colored immediately. "N-n-not that we would not have already-I mean!"

Kanako continued laughing. "I can see what you mean, Shinobu-san." She stopped. "Still, and I have to tell you I *will* look out for my Big Brother's best interests." She gave the bluenette a serious look. "I have to tell you right now while he cares for you; it is as a friend."

Shinobu gave Kanako a puzzled look. "He's talked about us with you?"

"Some," Kanako nodded. "Granny has her information sources as well."

"What do you mean?"

Kanako grinned. "You'll find out if you ever need to know."

Shinobu shrugged, not understanding in the least. But she did appreciate the help preparing dinner, and the answers to her questions. "... do you think sempai might someday think of me as more than a friend?"

It was Kanako's turn to shrug. "Who knows? But I also have to tell you the odds are long for obvious reasons."

Sadly, Shinobu nodded. "I would never, ever want to get sempai in trouble for dating someone my age. So I know I have to wait. And I know things may change between us during that time. He might decide he likes me, or… not. Or I might… like someone else. But… I like things right now between us, you know?" The petite bluenette's brow furrowed. "Isn't that funny?"

"No, I don't think it is." Kanako smiled. "However… you better not try and take advantage of current events for a dream 'girl's first kiss' maneuver on onii-chan. I will not have him in trouble," Kanako's eyes flashed minutely, "with the other girls' here or the law."

Shinobu was fortunate not to have been holding anything in her hands at that moment, for she instinctively flailed her arms about. "Nononononono! Nothing like that!" Shinobu blushed as unbidden the images of her fantasy of "her sempai" taking her in his arms came to her.

Kanako laughed again. "I think we better get dinner finished for the house. No?"

"No, I mean-yes!" Shinobu stammered amidst her blush as she and Kanako turned back to their task.

000

Dinner was completed and served without any further events of any import as Keitaro sat down in his usual seat. He found, somewhat to his relief, that Tsuruko and Kanako sat at the other side of the table, leaving Su and Sara at either side of him. Motoko, he noticed, made certain to ensure that Kitsune and Shinobu sat between her and her big sister and her retainer. With the absence of Naru, and the lack of any visitors this night, this made the seating configuration at the dinner table somewhat strange, but Keitaro decided to just roll with it. No holes had been put in walls or ceilings after all, yet.

Kitsune, having held off a drink all day, had decided it was safe for a bottle of sake or two. She was likely not to learn anything further that night, and, hell, she needed it. Kitsune also wished to see if Tsuruko and Kanako would also drink. She was aware that Kanako was under the drinking age according to catching her state her age in passing, but the fox knew that hardly stopped anybody when it was time for a good kanpai moment.

''An I certainly do not want to make 'em feel unwelcome,' Kitsune thought sincerely as she produced three respectively sized bottles of sake and began filling the saucers for those "reasonably" close to drinking age (at least in high school).

Keitaro stood up, regarding Kanako and Tsuruko with a nod. He smiled, bowed deep-almost gracefully noted both Kitsune and Motoko mentally, though unbeknownst to each other. "Welcome to the Hinata Inn!" He raised his small saucer.

"Kanpai!" everyone else said as they raised either their saucer high or their beverage of choice.

After a wonderful meal was enjoyed, Shinobu had taken Keitaro's advice to sit down and relax for a few minutes instead of washing up, this allowed everyone to sit and talk for awhile at the table. Kanako knew better, however, that the petite bluenette was carefully listening to every word spoken as soon as Sara and Su ran off to play. Tsuruko had been informed of her and Kanako's conversation earlier. Kanako and Tsuruko also knew that Kitsune and Motoko's reactions bear watching.

Tsuruko finished the last bit of her sake. "Keitaro-san, you have only told us a bit of what your duties are."

Keitaro nodded as Tama-chan curled up and napped on the top of his head now that Su had left the room. Shippu had found a perch on the chair Naru usually occupied as he happily shared a plate of cat food with Kuro. It seemed the new animals of the Hinata Inn were as interested in what was transpiring around the dinner table as the human residents. "There is more to the day to day things than most think. That is partly why, I imagine, Granny has us going down to Haruka's tomorrow morning to meet with my family's attorney."

"We have only scratched the surface, Tsuruko-sama." Kanako smiled thinly.

"My, My," Tsuruko looked around, "it seems when I was in residence here that Granny Hina always seemed to be so relaxed, it seems whenever I was not looking she was as busy as a bee."

Keitaro and Kanako nodded in unison, smiled politely, but would say no more.

Motoko sipped her tea, in a manner not unlike her older sister. "Urashima-san, I must inform you I will not be here tomorrow morning. I have a team meeting before school that I must attend. I do not wish for you to worry for me when I am not at table for breakfast." Motoko turned her eyes to see Keitaro as he nodded slowly that he understood what she was telling him; even though the surprise was plain on his face that she was addressing him with such respect and honor.

Tsuruko nodded. "Indeed, you must." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Then you must be off to the hot spring before all of us, so you may retire to your room and be up in the morning all the earlier for practice."

Motoko turned to Tsuruko, her eyes narrowed so minutely that nobody else caught it but her sister; the intended recipient. "Will you not be joining me, dear sister?"

She smirked. "I would. But I have other duties to attend to now as housemother. I trust to your good offices to decide how to conduct yourself in this matter."

'Motoko-han,' Tsuruko thought, 'now is not the time for a little sisterly discussion.'

'Damnation!' Motoko thought with a twinge of anger. There was still more she wanted to ask her sister, but *not* in front of anyone else, least of all Kanako. Motoko exhaled slowly, then became aware that Kitsune was observing her from how the fox was refilling her sake saucer. Motoko spared a glance in Kitsune's direction.

Kitsune, catching this, favored the kendo girl with a smile. "Ya up for more, sugah?" She waved the sake jar suggestively.

"Hmph!" Motoko turned her nose up. "I thank you, Konno-san, but I must decline." She rose from the table and bowed formally to Keitaro; who almost blushed at her manner. "I must prepare to retire for the night." Motoko spared another moment to bow to her sister and Kanako who rose to return the formal gesture.

Kitsune watched Motoko retreating from the dining room as she began her second saucer of sake. She looked over to Keitaro who was steering the conversation now to the daily duties of maintaining the Hinata Inn and its grounds (with particular emphasis on recycling, trash, and yard waste pick-up days) with Tsuruko and Kanako, briefly she caught his eyes and confirmation that he himself had noted Motoko's little display just now.

'Display?' Kitsune thought to herself as she took yet another sip. 'Hell, that was posturing' if I ever saw it, even if kendo girl would rather set herself on fire rather than be caught admitin' to it.' She favored Tsuruko with a smile now.

Tsuruko returned it, knowing the fox requested a response from the wolf. "Yes, Kitsune-san?"

"So…" Kitsune drawled as she waved her sake saucer around in front of her. "I get the part that you met Kei-kun's little sister a while ago, but when exactly did this 'guard and servant' business start and Granny Hina having y'all come on down? Was this planned from the start when Kei hon took over?"

Kanako shook her head. "No, Kitsune-san, it was not." She looked to her mistress, who wordlessly gave her permission for her retainer to continue. This more extended explanation had been prepared for during the pair's journey to the Hinata Inn...

000

Flashback...

Somewhere on a small island in Ariara, Philippines...

Two days after the "Kyoto Konfrontation"...

000

Sitting at the center of a traditional ten foot wooden fishing motorboat, Tsuruko with her ever present familiar Shippu upon her shoulder instructed the helmsmen to head towards the small island she had marked on the navigation chart. The island's location and the invitation came in a package she had received from Granny Hina the day before the final duel with her younger sister and her would-be husband.

Having needed to travel to many locales over the years as a demon slayer-though the majority of those were traveling throughout Japan-the Aoyama swordsmistress still found that traveling away from her native home a wondrous experience. That said, she still idly wondered how the old woman managed to cover such vast distances at inhuman pace even for people half her age.

Now on the beach, walking away from the modest boat marina, Tsuruko with Shippu on her shoulder curved a palm-fringed beach, the sea so clear that in the pale turquoise waters you can see right through to the sandy bottom, her visage almost dropping its usual stoic appearance as she enjoyed the sun and sea breeze. She looked ahead.

Shimmering away in the distance on the beach ahead there was an outcropping of jungle which marked the center of the island. Before that, lay a small village populated with small and medium sized thatched buildings with one or two larger brick buildings. Tsuruko soon found her destination; a large open-air hut with what looked like a large sized thatched central sitting and dining area adjacent to a larger building and yet more sand-rimmed and forested areas of the island to explore next to it.

Tsuruko reached the small structure where a dark clad figure was awaiting her arrival. With a serene smile the figure greets her with a short bow. "Greetings Aoyama-sama, I trust your journey was pleasant?" Having sent Shippu off to scout before entering the village, she returned her friend's greeting. "It was a most pleasant experience, thank you Kanako-san. It is a wonder how Hina-sama offers such unique experiences each time I visit her. I trust you are well?"

The Urashima witch smiled. "Very well, thank you." Kanako's expression turned more serious. "But how is Big Brother?"

Though her friend had made great progress in working out and controlling her infatuation with her brother, the samurai still found it comical at how animated the youngest Urashima would become at the mere mention of Keitaro. This provoked Tsuruko's usual smirk. "Oh you mean Kei-I mean Manager-san? He was most invigorating at our last encounter."

Stunned into silence for a few moments, Kanako sweatdropped. Finally, gathering her wits she responded: "Huh? Tsu- Just what do you mean by... invigorating?"

Placing her hand over her mouth, Tsuruko chuckled. "Ho-ho, most invigorating, I must say! But should we not gather with Hina-sama?" With a grin, Tsuruko started striding just ahead of Kanako towards the larger building where she deduced her objectives' location, with the dark haired girl following.

000

Arriving at her destination the samurai is greeted by the sight of a shaded beach cabana with one sunbather in a modest one-piece swimsuit. The happy tune being hummed confirmed Tsuruko's supposition that it was none other than Granny Hina even before Tsuruko's ki confirmed her identity. Tsuruko noted as she caught Hina's eye (the old woman waved over to Tsuruko as she came into view) that the old woman was being handed a very large colorful beverage by one of her personal guards.

Observing her guest the old woman gestured her to sit opposite her on an adjacent beach chair. "Welcome my child, would you like to try some? I trust your sister demonstrated sufficient skill?" Hina hummed merrily.

Tsuruko nodded in reply. Then she laughed as Hina took a long, deep sip out of a very long straw. The size of the glass was nearly Hina's size. Tsuruko noted there were three straws, and laughed as brightly as the sun. "Greetings Hina-sama," Tsuruko bowed formally. "Motoko-han demonstrated more than sufficient abilities, though the plan did not proceed as originally envisioned. However she exhibited great potential for the future as both a warrior and a woman." Tsuruko elaborated further on the happenings over the last several days.

A while later after they had finished the original reason for the visit, Hina could see how Tsuruko reached her conclusion that Motoko was more than fit to take over the school in the future, but she still needed further growth. Kanako spent much of the time attempting to steer the conversation towards her brother in between the infrequent sip from her own straw, though to no avail as she was continually shut down each time by Hina. The drink soothed Kanako's frustration, however.

Over the years Tsuruko had sampled several of the western-style alcoholic cocktails as she had found them a pleasant opportunity to expand her palate beyond sake. After several sips, though she was not under the influence she had begun to feel the effects of the tall, colorful concoction. The only way she could describe the feeling was pleasant and the more she had the more at ease she felt. Though one side effect was that maintaining her more business-minded intentions for this meeting had become a little more difficult.

Now fully enjoying the opportunity to catch up with her old friend it was Tsuruko's turn to steer the conversation towards Hina's grandson; much to Kanako's delight.

"You were correct about your grandson, he isn't what anyone would call a manly man but his strength of heart and spirit dwarfs almost any other male I have ever met." The samurai turned and gave the dark haired girl a knowing smile. "I can certainly understand why you have held your brother in such high regard, Kanako-san."

At just that moment the alcohol decided to really impact Kanako. "See? He is the only man in the world worthy!" She immediately shut her mouth tightly, looking sidelong to Hina. Her grandmother now had a grin on her face that sent chills up Kanako's spine. 'What scheme is she cooking up now?' Kanako wondered.

"That is certainly the best idea I have heard in a long time granddaughter, I thank you for it." Hina hummed again contemplatively as she sipped from her straw. For a few moments, she said no more.

Getting a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that kept getting deeper as the moments passed, Kanako realized that her grandmother had been planning on her making a comment in front of Tsuruko that went along the lines of what she had just said. 'I knew it! Granny did it again!' Kanako thought with a combination of embarrassment and awe at how she took the bait and ran with it without ever realizing it.

Tsuruko, her curiosity piqued at the outburst, is unable to keep her questions in check in her pleasingly buzzed state. "Oh, and what would be the intention of this 'idea' be, Hina-sama?"

Giving her audience a smile that would put the cat that got the cream to shame, Hina lifted up her finger, wagging it ever so slightly at Tsuruko. "You forgot to mention how you gave my grandson a hug, Tsu-chan."

Tsuruko chuckled, nodding in the affirmative. "Your sources do not miss much, Hime-sama."

Hina cackled, clearly enjoying her little game. Her expression then took on a more somber note. "I appreciate that it was my proposal for you to become one with Ko. I believe I am honor bound to assist you in working your way through this change in your life. Therefore I have a proposition."

Finally able to speak, Kanako gave Tsuruko a look. "Tsuruko-san is this true? Did you hug my Big Brother?" Giving her the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster, Kanako did her best, but Tsuruko only gave her a simple smile. Realizing the conversation had turned, Kanako turned back to Hina, keeping herself calm. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then respectfully bowed her head to her grandmother. After that was acknowledged by Hina, Kanako proceeded: "Proposition, Granny? What proposition?"

Feigning clearing her throat, Tsuruko spoke up. "I would also be obliged if you would elaborate, Hina-sama."

"Spoiling an old woman's fun, Tsu-chan?" Hina asked in mock annoyance. "I guess I should just come out and tell you." Hina suddenly became very serious as she took a deep breath. "I propose that you, Tsuruko Aoyama, in order to enjoy a change in your daily life, immediately give your office temporarily to your mother and become Housemother and assistant manager of the Hinata Inn."

Taking a few minutes to ponder the old woman's words, Tsuruko had to agree that prior to her arrival to the Hinata to test Motoko she was quickly becoming something she hated. Pining around the Aoyama clan dojo, burying herself in the minutiae of her duties in the administration of the God's Cry School, and even spending entirely too much time scrutinizing how clean her bedroom was now that Ko was gone. It was all an attempt to fill the gaping hole in her life by focusing on time-consuming busy-work to distract her and all it did was fill hours of the day without making her a better woman or samurai. She knew why she was slowly slipping into this trap; it was a defense mechanism against developing real resentment towards Kimiko or Ko and the situation that brought her to this point.

Tsuruko did not want to live this way.

The chance to spend more quality time with Motoko *was* enticing plus she could spend more time with the other wonderful, colorful individuals in residence at the Hinata Inn. In particular, the intriguing Manager-san.

During this time Kanako contemplated what to do. She knew if she started complaining about how she was promised to co-manage the Hinata with Keitaro then Hina would hear none of her arguments. Kanako mentally searched for some way, any way, to get her sent down to the Hinata Inn. She knew it would not be easy without raising suspicion that she was backsliding on her recovery from her infatuation with her brother and also seeming ungrateful to her grandmother with all she had done for her and taught her. But then, when it seemed like she would not come up with anything, Kanako suddenly smiled. She stood up, moved towards Tsuruko and kneeled before her.

"Tsuruko-sama," Kanako spoke with great deliberation," I humbly pledge fealty to you."

Tsuruko blinked, taken aback.

"Well, well," Hina chortled as she took another sip from her drink, the tone of her voice clearly suggesting a hint of inebriation. "This is unexpected."

Kanako looked up at her grandmother. "Granny, you have always told me I may seek my own path whenever I felt ready. Whether wandering paths on my own, or pledging myself in service to another."

Hina grinned. "That I did, Kana-chan."

Kanako returned her eyes to Tsuruko. The intensity with which she met the gaze of the Kendo Wolf of Kyoto was startling.

"You mean this, do you not?" Tsuruko asked softly.

"Yes," Kanako whispered.

Tsuruko looked up at Hina. "If I accept your offer, Hina-sama, and the pledge of your granddaughter; you may find the way I will assist Keitaro-san in running the Inn may not line up with how you and Haruka-san ran it."

Hina laughed. "Oh, I know. That's why I think it is a grand idea."

'You would, you conniving old coot.' Tsuruko thought.

Tsuruko returned her attention to Kanako. "And if I accept your offer, Kanako-san," Tsuruko's tone took on regal formality despite the alcohol, "I expect obedience and service." Her eyes glinted. "If I find out this is a deception to backslide on you giving up trying to make your brother your husband, then I will be very, very displeased. Is that clear?"

Kanako saw the glint in Tsuruko's eyes, knowing the threat. But Kanako knew her own heart, and the changes wrought within it. "I understand," she nodded, bowing her head almost completely to the tiki wood floor. "But please, accept my pledge and I will show you the change within… while also helping Big Brother with his duties as manager as I serve you."

Tsuruko's expression softened. She stood up. "Well and good. I accept your pledge of fealty, Kanako Urashima. Please rise."

Kanako rose, smiling. She bowed deeply again.

Tsuruko turned to face Hina. She noted the rosy, pleased expression on the old woman's face as she finished her beverage. "I humbly and gratefully accept your offer of employment."

Hina clap-clapped her hands together in gleeful joy, laughing merrily in the way that only doting and manipulative grandmothers could after having a few drinks.

In honest truth, Tsuruko knew Kanako still had some issues regarding her brother, but she trusted Kanako's words and the intentions behind them. Still, as a practical matter Tsuruko knew that Kanako would need to see her brother again to truly put her past feelings behind her and embrace the future. Plus, Tsuruko had to admit she was looking forward to spending more time with Kanako as well as a friend.

Hina smile slowly disappeared. "Though this new assignment is not entirely for you-and now Kana-chan-as a few things have me somewhat concerned. Having someone I trust as support will alleviate some of my worries." Hina let out a sigh, the old woman continued after seeming to choose her next words very carefully. "One concern is my grandson…"

Tsuruko and Kanako unconsciously hitched closer to hear Hina as her voice grew quieter.

For a couple of long moments, Hina said nothing. Tsuruko and Kanako waited, the only sounds were the surf and the wind blowing through palm trees.

Finally, Hina shrugged. "Awh hell, there's no easy way to tell you both this. According to your explanation Tsu-chan, Kei-chan is able to converse to an extent with your familiar-and the presence within that old family heirloom called my grandson a king." Hina leveled a suddenly very sober look at Tsuruko. "If what Kitsune told about her unpleasant encounter in regards to the demon within the blade is correct… these events do warrant further scrutiny in person by experienced eyes." The old woman shook her head, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. "Though, if I am honest with Keitaro's nearly instant healing abilities I had a small suspicion for a long time now it may not just be the Urashima arts in his spirit."

Tsuruko's flushed feeling is instantly gone and replaced by more cool, detached, focused tone. "What do you know about that katana, Hina-sama? Did you ever have any idea that that sword was *the* cursed blade of Hina?"

Hina shook her head from side to side. "Absolutely not, that sword was passed down from one head of the Urashima clan to the next as an heirloom; never, ever to be drawn, only to be kept safe and out of the way due to it being…" her brow furrowed, sifting through memory. "Fragile," she finished after thinking. "Yes, I was told it was very fragile. In fact, my father always said it was a fake sword for ceremonial purposes. He did not know when it entered the family's possession or from whom or any of the details of its forging. It has always just been with us."

"Granny, did you ever tell Big Brother about it?" Kanako asked.

"Not since he was shorter than me." Hina said simply. "In fact until the report my agents sent me from the duel in Kyoto; I had not thought about it since the last major revision of my will when I provided that the katana would go to Kei-chan when I pass away."

Tsuruko mulled this over. "Nevertheless, that sword *is* the cursed blade of Hina."

"Strange that it passed out of knowledge between the havoc it wrought on ancient Kyoto and your house and then coming into possession of the Urashima clan, my Lady." Kanako commented.

"Strange, yes, but the Aoyama and Urashima clans have since their earliest beginnings been present in the Kyoto area." Tsuruko shrugged. "After the demon in the blade committed its carnage and was sealed, the sword in its sheath could have simply ended up being found at random some time later by someone-almost anyone-and in time made it into the Urashima clan's keeping." She shook her head, there just was no way to know for certain.

"My family never had any idea of that blade being *the* cursed blade of Hina." Hina shook her head. "To imagine my name being the same of such a destructive possessed blade." She sighed, "it is chilling." She fixed a steady gaze on Tsuruko. "Are you certain Motoko-chan sealed that sword? It cannot harm anyone?"

"Yes," Tsuruko nodded in the affirmative. "She sealed and purified the demonic consciousness in it; now it obeys her will and is her sword. It cannot harm anyone unless they draw the katana and are *not* the sword's rightful owner; Motoko-han."

Hina smiled a thin, knowing smile. "Think of this as a working vacation, you two, in more ways than one!" The Urashima matriarch chuckled.

"I thought as much. You wish for me to act as a guard for your tenants and grandchild in addition to helping collect the rent and make repairs, then?" Tsuruko smirked wryly.

"And please do keep the gardens in good order, I am very proud of the work I put in over the years." Hina winked, her mood lightening a touch before becoming a little more somber once more. "All kidding aside, the answer is: yes and no. Dear, I believe it will do you as much good to take a break from your duties and heal your injuries in spirit. Your presence along with my dear granddaughter will help guard against any possibility of trouble, however slight. However, while I do not wish to infuriate or insult you with this, neither you nor I or could defeat the demon inside the blade if the seal Motoko-chan put on it were to somehow weaken or be broken altogether."

Kanako looked down. "It would be better if we had more of a complete history of the sword's role in the near annihilation of the Aoyama clan and the city of Kyoto."

Hina smiled, that familiar gleam coming back to her eye. And that smile.

"What, Granny?" Kanako asked.

"You know something, do you not, Hina-sama?" Tsuruko gave Hina prompting look.

Hina looked from Kanako and Tsuruko before continuing. "There is a legend, exactly what it means is unknown these days; as the one who first recorded the prophecy has been dead for a some time, she gave her life so that your family and the rest of Japan could be saved by confronting the demon burning down Kyoto." Pausing for a few moments to let what she just said sink in (and collect her thoughts), she continued: "It is said that the legend was brought to the east by her student, who escaped the evils that would surely devour his kind and thus ensure his line's continued survival through the ages. Though it is some millennia or so old I will recite the legend. I caution both of you, this is but a translation passed down one generation to the next within the Urashima clan to those with an interest in ancient family lore." The old woman opened a scroll that had been quickly and silently handed to her by one of her servants. Hina opened the scroll and took a deep breath before beginning her recitation.

000

If he does yet breathe, he can be found in the Forest of Celyddon. Although some say he is merely a figure of legend, it may be less than prudent to concur with the doubters. After all, they were the men who dismissed the story of Myrddin's magicking of Stonehenge from across the seas and we know now that the monuments stone came from a quarry that is indeed across a sea, across the Cardigan Bay, on the southern coast of Wales. Such disbelief, however, is not uncommon in the treatment of this man of the woods. His life, to this point, has not been one of ease, but has been marked, yes, by madness but also by a never-ending struggle against those who would sleight his essential nature, even going so far as to attempt to kill him for it.

Once a prince in the world of men, he rules over the forest as king. He speaks the tongues of animals and they listen to him as they listened to Adam, Noah, and the early men of this earth. The society of his animal companions, sometimes the pig, sometimes the wolf, is the only society that Myrddin can withstand for the world of men has driven him to despair and madness. Much has been made of his madness, which unmoored his mind's eye so that rather than experience the world in the present, as the mass of men do, he sees the future relentlessly unfolding before him. To hear him speak of the future is to put oneself in peril, for, as it is commonly known, foreknowledge is a grave danger to all sane men who encounter it.

Myrddin was, before prophecy struck him, a great lord of the Welsh people, the bearer of a golden torque. He was terrible to meet in battle and his prowess inspired awe from his enemies and friends alike. He had a wife whom he loved dearly and who was deeply enamored of him and his powerful figure. He was, from all accounts, well spoken and well spoken of at court, though he harbored great hostility toward the Christian missionaries who had taken to trumpeting their new faith throughout the land. It might have been because of this animosity that he went mad, though the accounts all differ as to how it happened. What is certain is that he was never the same after the Battle of Arfderydd.

The Battle of Arfderydd was fought on the plains of Scotland before Scotland was known by such a name, between the rivers of Liddel and Esk. Assembled on the field that day were the hosts of the Welsh's two most mighty warlords, a devotee to the old Gods and Myrddin's liege lord. It is during this clash of titans that the Gods touched Myrddin.

Away from the moans of the dying and injured, away from the grunts of the soldiers exhausting themselves in the attempt to kill their enemy, in the attempt to stay alive themselves, away from the horrible accusatory silence of the corpses, of the cloven heads that bobbed in estuaries of blood, away from that silence (that silence!) and into the woods went Myrddin. Off into the wild he flew "like any bird of the air." He landed in an apple-tree in the Forest of Celyddon and was to stay there for many years. In that forest, the forest where the madmen searched for their sanity, he lived with the animals. He slept in the boughs of the oak trees and lived on a diet of nuts and vegetables. It was among the animals that he hid as he sought protection from King Rhydderch who he was certain was trying to kill him. It was to the animals that he foretold the coming of Cadwaladyr, the great King who would unite the people and bring peace. It was to the animals that he spoke as he attempted to find peace with the violence of his kind.

Myrddin Wyllt, if he does yet breathe, can be found in the Forest of Celyddon. Perhaps he is singing, for he is, they say, as gifted in voice as the famed Taliesin of the golden brow. But, if he has died in the centuries since he was last beheld by mortal mind, if the word-sorcerers de Boron and Mallory have succeeded in stealing his soul to animate their fantastical courtier-counselor, Merlin the magician, and Myrddin Wyllt has sunk into slumber, then, it is said, wait for the time of the great King Cadwaladyr's return, when the steel cages shall crash to the ground, the black tar shall be uprooted, the endless fires shall be extinguished, the silver dragons that belch smoke into the sky slain, and Myrddin Wyllt shall once again walk with the lonely wolf, ride the crownless stag, fraternize with the hare, consort with the fox, associate with the kite, tame the wild boar, and devour coupled with speak prophecy to the pig.

000

Taking a deep breath Hina allowed a few moments for Tsuruko and Kanako to contemplate what she had just recited. "As I have said, to this day we have been unable to decipher the exact meaning of this translation, but I do have a clue." Reaching underneath the table to a discretely placed attache case, Hina pulled out a solid silver Knight chess piece and gave it to Tsuruko.

Tsuruko accepted the object with a short bow of her head. She analyzed the item, aside from the piece being a solid piece of silver the Aoyama swordsmistress was unable to find any significant feature, though having been trusted with the item she was about to stow it safely in her gi-when her fingers discerned some minute markings.

Kanako noted the change in expression on Tsuruko's face, and gave her new mistress a questioning look.

"I feel some writing on this artifact," Tsuruko said to Hina. "Very faint, but they resemble runes of some kind. Icelandic perhaps, but I am hardly an expert in these things."

Hina nodded in the affirmative. "Those have been noted as well over the years, but we have never had anyone examine the item closely for fear of losing it. The writing on the chess piece is similar to the writing of the scroll-but no one in the Urashima clan has ever been able to translate what is on the piece. As you heard from the translation of that old legend; it is very difficult to understand in parts. So for ages my family has kept these two items close-along with what I now have found out is the dreaded demon sword of Hina-until now." She smiled.

"You do me much honor, Hina-sama." Tsuruko bowed her head again. "I will do my best to investigate further with the knowledge and artifact you have entrusted me."

"As well as help my dear grandson." Hina giggled.

Kanako chuckled.

"Yes, that as well." Tsuruko smirked, already the wheels in her mind were turning on a new question. Who could she ask for help with what she had just learned?

000

Sometime later Hina waved farewell to Tsuruko and Kanako as they embarked on their new quest. "I will miss my granddaughter," Hina whispered.

Abruptly two dark figures appear behind the matriarch. "We can retrieve Kanako at a moment's notice by your command, Hina-sama." They bowed perfectly in unison.

Smiling at the offer Hina smiled, waving the two to stand at ease, but also showing she appreciated their concern. "No, that will not be necessary, Tora. You and Aiko may return to your duties." Hina took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. "I thank you, but my granddaughter must grow up eventually."

000

On the boat ride back to the mainland where the airport was located, Tsuruko sat with her mobile phone in one hand and the Knight piece in the other. Kanako had asked for a brief leave to watch the ocean from the other side of the ship with Kuro, and Shippu had joined them. Briefly she weighed her options, pondering, then she smirked. She knew just who to contact. As she flipped through her mobile phone's contact list, she laughed as she for a few moments longer luxuriated in the fresh, salty south seas air. Once she made arrangements with the good professor, she would express ship by courier the Knight piece to his good keeping with orders from the Aoyama and Urashima clans to investigate and report back; if he happened to stumble on something that could win him the Nobel Prize, then good for him.

"You owe me a favor or two, Noriyasu Seta," she said out loud as she pecked out the text message on the phone, not caring in the least if any of her fellow ferry passengers heard her.

000

Present day...

"The residents seemed to have taken the explanation well," Kanako said as she dried a dish that Tsuruko had just handed her.

Tsuruko began scrubbing another dish. "Hmmhmm. Though I imagine I may have lost half the room at the mention of the chess piece. I cannot blame even Keitaro-san in not following along in the telling of the legend; I myself have my doubts about many parts of it." They had both firmly insisted to Shinobu and the other residents that they handle the clean-up and dishes for that night. As of now, they were almost done and as their trained ears were able to make out, everyone in the Inn was going through their pre-bedtime routine. To Tsuruko and Kanako's amusement, the greatest commotion while they washed up was Keitaro and Sara during their many rounds of playing Rumble Kings with Su and Kitsune providing color commentary and Shinobu cheerleading.

"What do you think the meaning is of all of this, my Lady?"

Tsuruko handed Kanako another dish to dry. "If there is factual basis to what has happened and your grandmother's fears, then I hope it is just a bit of minor spiritual annoyance now that I have experience with the demon's power." She pursed her lips. "The answer should present itself soon as the wheels have already been set into motion. "

"Then we will purify?"

Tsuruko smirked. "So eager to go into battle, are we?" She passed another dish to Kanako for cleaning.

"I feel continued uneasiness at your report of what happened in Kyoto with that sword," Kanako sighed after considering her mistress' question.

"Yes, I understand why. Even if Motoko-han sealed the presence of the Hina blade. The voice Keitaro-san and Konno-san reported is troubling." Tsuruko shrugged, contemplating. "But do not have your heart set on expectations of a great battle; oftentimes in cases like this the spirits seize on the ghosts of our own minds and give greater shape and meaning than is actually there; even if there *are* similarities. It could also be another spirit that was locked in the blade along with the Hina spirit demon, and has been dispersed by Motoko-han for all time."

Kanako finished drying the last dish. Soon the two began final clean-up around the sink area of the kitchen. "Then what made Granny remember this legend and the artifact, and you this Seta-sensei character?"

Tsuruko gave Kanako a look, then laughed. "My servant knows well how to ask an open question of her Lady."

Kanako blushed, feeling a bit chastened, then she looked down. "I apologize-"

"-no need." Tsuruko smiled, holding up her hand just so. "I only know what you have already learned from Hina-sama on the island." She glanced upstairs, as if making that she could see the object of their discussion. The Rumble Kings tournament having ended a few minutes earlier and everyone started making their way upstairs. "The key seems to be that something involving the Hina blade called Keitaro a 'lesser king' and mocked him, his spirit, and his energies."

Kanako nodded. "How will we proceed then once your archeology professor acquaintance reports back?"

"Fortunately," Tsuruko shrugged. "We have everyone's trust and support. I will talk to Motoko-han in the morning before her practice; catch her up on a few details and instruct her to keep that katana sealed and locked on its katakana when she is not directly wielding it. I should hear from Seta-sensei soon, then we will piece the puzzle together while helping Keitaro-san turn this Inn around!"

"Running an Inn while fighting possible evil, much better than college or working in my parent's sweet shop." Kanako smiled, leaving unsaid the other Urashima clan "enterprises."

Tsuruko laughed into her sleeve knowingly. Indeed it was.

000

Naru Narsuegawa flopped onto the bed of her childhood room with a "harumph" that if one called it exactly what it was-that is frumpy; they would have been immediately rewarded with a Naru left hook. Her trip to see her family had taken a week so far. Three days with her mother, stepfather, and Mei on the other side of Kyoto prefecture from Kyoto City, and three days with her father in the small village on the other end of the jurisdiction. That last bit had been even more unplanned and spur of the moment but had swiftly been embarked upon when she received a fax from Haruka announcing the results of the duel in Kyoto; much to her relief though she would not admit it. Her father had sent to his ex-wife a standing invitation for Naru to come and visit. She accepted once she puzzled over a comment in Haruka's message alluding to Motoko and Kitsune pawing at Keitaro.

Naru at least knew Haruka well enough to know that that was deadpan hyperbole on her part, and she certainly knew Keitaro enough to know he was not overtly inviting increased attention from Motoko and Kitsune, but still one could not quite put it past that perverted part of Keitaro's mind-

Her phone rang on her nightstand, she answered it. "Hello?"

[Hey girl, how you doin'?]

Naru smiled thinly, she could tell Kitsune was forcing the levity into her voice.

"Good, good, how are you?"

[Well, this and that, these and those.]

Naru's smile drooped a bit as she heard Kitsune take a swig of sake. "How are things there?"

[... we have two new residents.]

Naru bolted upright in her bed. "W-what, who? Who has Keitaro let in without me being there?!"

[...]

"Kitsune? You there?"

['Ya, I'm here, girl. Just letting that last line of bullshit of yours roll off 'my back. Oh, look! There it goes!] Another swig of sake.

Naru frowned. Mentally reviewing what she had just said and how it may have sounded, she sighed. "Right, right, I'm not the manager, still I am the manager's study partner and I was close to Granny Hina, that should count for-"

[Not a whole hell of a lot, Naru. Sorry to say.]

"Well, okay! You got me there, Kitsune! So you going to tell me who our new housemates are or not? Please tell me they're girls." Naru rubbed her temples.

[You're only half-right.] Kitsune giggled for a few seconds too long for Naru's liking.

"... Keitaro let a man in? That perv-!"

[Na-chan, if Kei-kei was really such a big perv why would he let men rent rooms? It would mean less for him, ya know?] Kitsune's tone was as if she was talking to a four year old child.

"Yeah," Naru sighed, "but whenever Keitaro does something you have to always be on your guard and make sure it isn't something perverted!"

Kitsune's answering laughter over the phone cut Naru off sharply, in fact the first reaction that Naru felt was that Kitsune was being intentionally condescending towards her.

[Sorry, sorry… I'm sorry, Na-chan. You see, no Kei-kei did not let a man in it is just while Kanako-san is definitely a girl; though a strange one, Tsuruko-sama is definitely a woman; scratch that, a lady.]

"Tsu-what-sama?" Naru blinked, the name familiar. "Wh-what? Isn't that the same name as Motoko's older sister? The one they beat in that damn silly duel?"

[The very same, girl.]

"Then what the fuck is she doing there, Kitsune? And who is this Kanako girl?"

[...why don't you come home and find out, Naru? Should be fun.]

"Wait, you *know*, Mitsune Konno! Why aren't you telling me?!"

[Na-chan, I love ya', 'ya know that?]

"Well, yeah, I love you too, you're my best friend," Naru's frustration with the conversation was filtering outward into her voice and very being. "Why aren't you telling me?"

[... concerned about more rivals for Kei-kei, are 'ya?]

"What? NO!"

[Sorry, sugah, I really gotta jet, another bottle o' sake is calling my name just about now. Bye!]

The line went dead in Naru's ears then. The hand that was not holding the phone clenched into a fist.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she exhaled finding calm using the techniques Seta had taught her and Kitsune years ago. Idly, Naru wondered if that is how Kitsune became such a smooth and calm operator when it came to her little schemes and ease with dealing with adversity in her life. It had served her well, Naru admitted while honestly not seeing the appeal in her best friend's lifestyle. However, things had changed; even Naru would openly admit. The younger girls were growing up, Motoko was blossoming into a more well-rounded individual rather than just the stoic "kendo girl," her and Keitaro were now Tokyo U students, and Su's inventions were causing less property damage. Even Haruka and Seta seemed to be more on the same wavelength when dealing with Sara; more like old friends. Why shouldn't Kitsune be acting a bit for herself and not just as a supporting character in Naru's life?

"Then why isn't she waiting for me to decide?" Naru whispered to herself. "This isn't easy."

Slowly, as the amount of days increased since she left Hinata City (no, turned her back on Keitaro, she mentally amended) she had been evaluating her behavior and while she still *wanted* to blame Keitaro; she found it increasingly difficult to rest it completely on him. As Naru interacted with her fellow club members and then went back home she decided to keep a journal just for the journey; following Seta's old habit of not diary keeping but of writing an account of only actions, reactions, and reasoning behind them. In order to practice her English proficiency, Naru had even written it in English. The practice was beneficial. Last night, Mei had asked to read the journal after discovering it on Naru's bed, lying open. Naru gave her permission, honestly eager for her little sister's opinion as she had not made it clear that she herself had written it or what it was about. She simply told Mei it was an English text, and that since Mei was doing very well with her own English classes, why not try and read it?

Mei had read the journal, then asked who the bitch was that wrote it?

Naru had been fortunate that she had been up the hall in the bathroom brushing her hair so that she could cover up her shock and sputtering reaction by lightly scolding Mei about using such language. All through that night and all that day Naru had re-read the journal twice and thought back on her trip and what had come before. Finally, she conceded the point. At the very least, there was a stark difference between how she acted around her family, and female peers, and how she acted in public and when men were concerned. Even her actions around her father and step-father, while cordial and affectionate, lacked real warmth. Like she was always looking for distance and escape while only keeping up appearances.

"What am I going to do about Keitaro?" Naru asked this outloud of her bedroom ceiling, but it was barely a whisper.

"Na-chan? Dinner!" Her mother called from downstairs.

"I'll be right there, Mom!"

000

Naru went through the motions of smoothing out her appearance and proceeded downstairs. She walked into the dining room and the sight that greeted her nearly made her eyes bug out of their skull.

"Heya, Naru!"

"Seta-sensei?!" Naru blinked, looking around from her mother, her stepfather, and to Mei and back. Realizing they were all getting one hell of a kick from her aghast expression, Naru recovered. "How are you? When did you get here?"

Her old tutor chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "Well, your mother invited me up here when she found out you were coming home for a bit."

Naru's eyes narrowed a bit amid the happy smile on her face. Did Sara know? "I thought you were on a dig."

"I was!" Seta beamed with boy-like enthusiasm. "The Isle of Man… wonderful place, but windy…"

"I can't believe you came all this way just to see me."

"It would be tempting, wouldn't it? But no." Seta smiled, charming as ever amidst his cluelessness that the gentlemanly thing to do would have been to tell a little white lie to a lady. "This may sound a bit funny, but it is a coincidence that I am here. I was at my dig, when an old friend called me to take a look at an artifact that they had happened across. I told them I was far too busy, I mean I had to leave Sara-chan in Hinata, hadn't I? They insisted, then began describing this artifact; which is a Knight chess piece with some runic inscriptions on it. She paid a lot of money for a courier to fly it over to my office at Tokyo U and told me if I was not there to meet it she would challenge me to a duel. This friend of mine is the kind to back up such a threat, so I immediately caught the next flight back to Tokyo. Now there I was sitting in my office looking right at this chess piece artifact! That was around when I got the invitation from your mother."

The somewhat forced smile on Naru's face said it all. "And you just couldn't refuse free food, could you, Seta-sensei?"

"Certainly not your mother's!" Seta rose and bowed to the lady of the house, who blushed as she accepted the pleasantry.

"Can't argue there," Naru chuckled, not insincerely as Seta had stuck around for dinner plenty of times back when he tutored her.

"Why don't you sit down and I'll tell you all about my latest digs; I have discovered lots about the Great Turtle Civilization and its colonies!" Seta's eyes glinted with a boyish gleam that always made Naru stop and take notice.

She found herself smiling, and briefly allowing the turmoil in her mind take a back-seat as she sat down next to Seta to enjoy dinner.

000

After dinner and helping Naru's mother with cleaning up, Naru and Seta decided to enjoy the night with a walk to a local park that held no real sentimental value for Naru in her childhood, nor was it particularly scenic in her young adulthood, but it did provide a destination for them to go without much of a possibility of interruption.

"So, Keitaro broke his leg, and cannot start new student orientation until he can heal up." Naru finished catching Seta up on the recent status of the manager of the Hinata Inn. Naru looked ahead as they reached the front entrance of the park. It occupied a small street corner, sparsely but pleasingly populated with trees and dense shrubberies and flower beds, a gazebo, and two small playgrounds; one for toddlers and the other for older children.

Seta nodded, sighing with sympathy for his part-timer. "That is a problem. Tokyo U does not have good policies for students with injuries; especially those who live a good hour and a half train ride away from campus." He then smiled. "Funny, though, they do have very relaxed work-study and independent learning elective programs."

"That's nice…" Naru agreed aimlessly, she sighed. No time like the present. "Seta-sensei, I did something that I cannot understand; and worse yet, I think I may have behaved… badly."

"Oh, so you slept with Keitaro in an attempt to 'nurse' him back to health?" Seta chuckled, then winked suggestively.

"Don't be perverted, Seta-sensei!" Naru shook her fist in the air for emphasis. The brief flash of anger seemed to dissipate as quickly as it appeared, leaving Naru seemingly deflated, defeated.

"All kidding aside, Naru. Tell me, what happened?" Seta's tone turned serious but sympathetic.

"... he told me he loved me."

Seta grinned. Nodded politely, as if expecting that Naru's revelation would be forthcoming. His smile vanished once he realized that that *was* the revelation. "You mean you didn't know?"

"No! I mean, yeah!" Naru took a few steps off the path to walk around in a deliberative circle in the cool grass where children played and young couple enjoyed picnicking during the day. She shook her head. "Rather I mean to say I suspected he *may* feel that way towards me, but I was surprised when he came out and said it like he did."

"Okay… I'm happy for you two," he smiled. "So why are you acting like you just kicked a litter of puppies to steal their chow?"

"... is it okay if, I don't know, I told you that I did not say anything to Keitaro and just left the room?"

Seta's smile remained. "Well, I would be confused and concerned. And I would be very concerned for how Keitaro was feeling." Bit by bit his small vanished. "... wait, this is for real, isn't it?"

Naru could only nod in the affirmative, not looking at him, staring straight ahead at the fountain.

Seta was stone silent. He looked around where they stood in a vacant park. He admired the well maintained grass and the slightly worn appearance of the swing-set that stood not far from them. He thought briefly that this was not a bad place to park and camp if the local police force would be amiable to that end. Finally, after briefly admiring the stars, he turned back to Naru who was similarly lost in thought and simultaneously trying to avoid it.

"So I guess you don't love Keitaro after all, huh?" Seta suddenly felt a strong urge for a cigarette.

"... I keep trying to think about things, and I just feel scared."

"Scared?" Seta was a bit surprised at that.

"I do feel some kind of warm emotion towards Keitaro," Naru spoke slowly, keeping her eyes fixed on a point as far away as her eyes could discern in the nighttime gloom of the park, illuminated only be a few stray street lamps. "But I can't say it matches what he feels for me, or even if it feels right to date him and find out, you know?"

"Wait, 'feels right,' Naru?" Seta held up his hand, even though she was not looking at him. "What precisely do you mean by that?"

Naru sighed, shaking her head. She said nothing.

Seta smiled compassionately. "Think on your emotions for a moment, then close your eyes and try and recall the first memory of when you felt similarly."

Naru took her old tutor's advice. After a while, Naru spoke in a halting, uncertain whisper that Seta had to take several steps towards her to understand what she was saying. "When Mei was very young, it was her birthday. Her first birthday when she was going to a have a lot of friends over from her school, she was turning seven, and I-I cannot believe how immature I was-I was jealous at how much and how many presents my Mom and Stepdad were lavishing on her…" she fell silent.

Seta waited patiently, his calming, caring and yet carefree expression on his face that Naru had grown to accept and appreciate back when he started tutoring her. The beginning embers of her dream of becoming a teacher were kindled then.

Eventually, Naru rallied the strength to forge on. "The night before I got up and found out where Mom and Dad were hiding all of her presents and I resolved to get back at Mei being spoiled somehow. I found out they were going to give her own Liddo-kun, because she could not keep her hands off of mine… so I convinced myself that switching them out-the new Liddo-kun for me-would be just compensation…" Naru closed her eyes in shame. The pathetic nature of the memory seeming to grow more oppressive by the second.

"But you didn't, did you?" Seta chuckled in good humor. Not at her, though, just to express his solidarity with her in that moment.

"...no."

"Why?" Seta asked, favoring Naru with a probing look. "You probably would have gotten away with it, and I bet Mei would have loved it regardless."

Naru looked up at the starry sky above the trees. "... a feeling that I was opening someone else's gift; which duh-that was the idea, but…" her eyes met his, "like I was robbing them of something meant just for them, you know? I just felt very cold, thinking not of getting in trouble for such a stupid and wrong thing; but just how… that Liddo-kun was not *for* me, you know? It was not *mine.*" Her spine stiffened. She would answer Seta's question. Finally, with effort she did so. "That is how I felt when Keitaro told me he loved me; I felt like if I accepted or acknowledged it I would be opening a gift meant for someone *else.*"

Seta swallowed in a suddenly dry throat. "Then if you are telling me the truth… you did the right thing, Naru."

Her back still turned to Seta, Naru's shoulders slumped. "... but I know I still really hurt him, you know?"

All at once Seta's mind filled with what he knew of his part-timer and caretaker and "playmate" for his adopted daughter. "Yes, I bet he is hurting something fierce right now, Naru; but that does not change the fact you did the right thing. For both of you." Seta smiled thinly, slowly he reached out and grasped Naru's shoulder.

Naru did not flinch at the touch, instead it seemed to have been the final crack in an immense wall of stone within herself. She instinctively turned to Seta and crumpled into his arms, sobbing.

"... I can't go back… not yet!" Naru cried, not bothering to try and look up at him, or even to open her eyes as the tears coursed out of them. "Not right now. Not after what I did to him back there. Not just at the hospital, but before all that, too!"

"You have to face him sometime, Naru." Seta told her, softly.

"I know… Kami, I feel like such an indecisive coward! But I'm just not ready yet." Naru shook her head. "But where can I go?"

Seta flashed his familiar grin. "It just so happens I have the perfect solution."

000

The letter to Kitsune had been easy to write as the morning light spilled across her bedroom's study table, the hard part was coming up with a politic reason to her mother and stepfather as to why she could not just pick up the phone and call her best friend. Her reason, she could tell by the look on their faces, only deepened their worries about why she was spending so much time away from the Hinata Inn. Her mother had even stopped her during a private moment in her room when she was quickly packing.

"Na-chan, what is going on?" Her mother asked, low and conspiratorially. "This isn't like you."

Naru had looked down at her Liddo-kun resting on her bed, peeking up at her, half-packed into her duffel bag. She thought for a moment, then looked up at her mother. "You know what, Mom? You're right; this isn't like me, which is probably why it is exactly the thing I *should* be doing right now." The statement would have probably startled Naru's mother if it was not for the sudden happy smile on Naru's face and the sparkle in her eyes.

Now, as Naru sat in the passenger side seat of Seta's beat-up, nearly broken down van, rumbling along some muddy road through the densely-forested hills of the Kyoto backcountry as the day turned to dusk, she had long since ceased caring about why she was going, where, or how, just so long as she was on a journey to something new and somehow better.

"So you said we're going on an expedition," Naru spoke after a long moment of silent contemplation, turning to Seta. "How many are coming along?"

"Just us," Seta chuckled.

Naru raised an eyebrow. "What? Just us?" If it was any other man telling her this, part of her knew she would have swiftly introduced his face to her fist, but somehow this time she was fine with it.

'It's Seta, it's different. I know what to expect,' she thought after wondering at the contradictory feelings warring within.

"Yeah," he shrugged absently. "The lady friend of mine who gave me this artifact piece… there are runes on it that match the runes on another artifact that a professor of mine at Tokyo U came across and wrote a paper on back in the sixties. There were jarring similarities in some of his findings between what he found and what this piece has on it-"

Naru sighed, shaking her head. "Oh, out with it, Professor!"

Seta chuckled. "Well, if you insist." Seta took a deep breath. "As my many years of studying the Great Turtle Civilization have shown me, sometimes clues and artifacts of a lost civilization can be scattered throughout the world and not just in their main geographical haunts. Most of the times, there's a simple explanation; either the civilization actually *was* there or expanded to that location; however briefly."

"Yeah," Naru nodded, "that's common-sense History 101, Seta-sensei."

Seta smiled, his eyes glinting like a little boy finding hidden candy. "Then there are the cases when a civilization's artifact ends up being found in a place that it does not belong. Like the Viking coin found in a Native American campsite dig in the United States' prefecture of Maine some years ago."

"Well, that's simple too," Naru replied dryly. For the moment setting aside correcting Seta that the Americans customarily do not think of their states as mere prefectures. "There was the Newfoundland site and other evidence that we know of that the Vikings were in the general vicinity in that time period."

Seta nodded. "Very good, Naru," he gave her a sidelong glance. "Then why did my old professor find a similar coin with nearly the same metallurgical elements in Kyushu back in 1967? And with strange runes that are very similar to the Knight chess piece-and once more have no business being anywhere in ancient Japan?"

Naru gave her old tutor a long look. Her first instinct was that Seta was trying to have a bit of fun at her expense but she remembered that that just was not like him. Seta was many things, but someone who liked to tell a fib about archeology in order to trip up one of his students just for his amusement was not one of his character traits whatsoever. Finally, she harrumphed. "If your old professor did find something like that, then why haven't I read about it?"

"I asked him why myself," Seta sighed. "Old Tobimaru-sensei would just puff on his pipe and say; 'my boy, sometimes you cannot have a conclusion without inciting a worse reaction than if you left things vague. Frankly, sometimes that worse reaction is simply not worth the trouble. If I put in that paper what the evidence and the data led to; then I would be hounded out of my field and the paper mocked at and buried. But I wanted it out there so researchers could read it, so I crafted my thesis about the coin and my conclusion to be deliberately open-ended rather than just stating straight-out that I think it is very similar to a Viking coin, but older and with similar properties to coins made in the British Isles prior to the Viking Age. And the runes on the coin are clearly not of local origin. How would that look in the journals?' he would ask."

Naru nodded. "It would look like something completely loony; wait you're not suggesting… are you?"

Seta shrugged. "I don't know exactly what I am suggesting; I am going to follow the evidence and the data. When that old friend sent me that artifact piece, and the rune markings on it, I remembered Tobimaru-sensei's paper about that coin."

"I can see why you think the two artifacts are connected," Naru commented. "But why are we going all the way out here to the back country of Kyoto when the coin was found in Kyushu and the chess piece seems to be from half-way across the world originally?"

"Tobimaru-sensei saved a soil and rock sample from the Kyushu site where the coin was found." Seta's eyes took on that mad, rogue-ish, but good-natured gleam again. "When I got the Knight Chess piece, and matched up the runes, I had the Tokyo U Geologists run a quick and dirty analysis of the sample. Thanks to the new Geological Database at the University, I got a good match on this general area."

"General area?" Naru's eyes widened. "I thought you had a dig site."

"I do," Seta nodded. "The ruins of an old, old Shinto shrine that are in the middle of a forest. One of the stones seemed to have an inset in a stone; missing something about the size of-"

"A coin," Naru nodded again, understanding. "So aren't we going after the coin first?" Naru asked.

"No, no!" Seta giggled. "It's locked in my toolbox along with that Knight chess piece that friend of mine sent me."

"Don't you ever worry you're going to lose something valuable?" Naru narrowed her gaze a bit.

"Artifacts? No." Seta replied simply.

Naru left it at that. Seta was absentminded and dense in many aspects of his life (his relationships with Haruka and Julia in particular; not to mention his parenting of Sara), but not when it came to his work. She looked up ahead at the dirt road ahead in the gloom, and made out piece of road shoulder that lined up to a row of bushes. As Seta thumped his van to a gentle (for him), stop, Naru realized it was not a row of bushes, but an old stone wall that was now covered in vines.

Seta, without missing a beat, hopped out of the van and started gathering their supplies.

"How far is it to the site?" Naru asked as she put on a jacket.

"An hour long hike."

"'Okay," she nodded as she checked her backpack. "But if it isn't *that* far from the village, then why did we have to set out this evening? Couldn't we have waited for the morning?"

Seta gave her a look. "That's just the first campsite, the dig site is a couple days' hike from here."

Naru sighed, looking down at her boot-clad feet, imagining the trial they were about to endure. "I suppose it is too much to ask if we could have just flown there?"

An honest thoughtful look stole over Seta's face for a half-instant. "You know, I never thought of that."

Naru clenched her fists, she briefly fumed, then… released. '... well, it will give me time to think and relax,' she thought of the hike ahead. "I guess we better get going."

"Right!" Seta smiled, shouldering his enormous back-pack. "Let us solve this tantalizing conundrum!"

Naru smiled back, her immediate past forgotten for the moment, with only the journey and task at hand she felt a measure of peace she had not had in a long while.

000

Keitaro inhaled the morning air of the top of the hill where the Hinata Inn sat as he waited for Tsuruko and Kanako. He knew he had arrived early, very early in fact since dressing in his semi-business casual clothes (dark pressed trousers and a white collared button-up shirt) had not taken nearly as long as he had anticipated. Keitaro also wanted to peruse the grounds of the front of the inn and evaluate whether any pressing maintenance needed to be done or not. Since Tsuruko and Kanako assured them they would gladly accept even the most mundane menial task, he did not want to disappoint them. Still, Keitaro grinned to himself, he would reserve the most challenging, difficult, and disgusting tasks for himself. After all, he would not dream of having Kanako or Tsuruko clean the hot springs or the bathrooms; assist yes but there were certain things he just was not having.

'I hope Haruka won't be losing too much business while we're down there signing papers,' Keitaro thought. Haruka had seemed very anxious and surprised at his enthusiasm to get the legal matter of Tsuruko and Kanako's arrival at the Inn finalized. 'She's probably just hoping things won't get too crazy for business with new residents.' Another unspoken plan of Keitaro's was once Tsuruko and Kanako settled in and learned the rhythms of the Inn, then he might advertise for more residents. Resident girls, of course, his mind mentally amended out of (painfully) learned habit.

-Good morning, I see you are up early.- Shippu said to him in his language consisting of KAWS and KUE-KUEs.

"Oh, hey, Shippu!" Keitaro looked up, lifting a hand up from his crutches carefully, waved up to the crane circling around him in the air casually.

"Meow!" Keitaro looked down, feeling Kuro rub up against his uninjured trouser leg. -I see you have finally unlocked your latent ability to talk to sentient animals, Kei-Kei.-

Keitaro's mouth gaped open as he looked down at Kuro. "Y-y-you too?!"

Kuro nodded, purring. -Mistress Kanako will be *so* happy!-

"Well, um, yeah, I guess," Keitaro sputtered, then shrugged. "Though I guess it isn't something that special, I mean ever since Mutsumi-san gave us Tama-chan I have been able to understand him; even if not word by word."

Shippu sighed, or what passed for a sigh from a crane. -My, you are a dense one, aren't you?-

Kuro meow-meowed amusement. -That's an endearment; coming from a crane.-

"Um, thanks, I guess," Keitaro bowed his head, chuckling.

-I suppose it could be worse,- Shippu continued to loop and circle lazily around him and Kuro. -You could have been one of those dishonorable kinds who would take advantage of such an ability to do harm.-

-And if he was of that kind, your mistress and my mistress would have nothing to do with him.- Kuro cut in sharply, licking a paw as he looked squarely up at Shippu.

Shippu "yawned." -I suppose you do have a point, my friend.-

It was then that Keitaro heard the front door of the Hinata open and out strode Tsuruko followed by Kanako. Each was dressed in business casual attire in accordance with their respective stations; Tsuruko in a fresh and proper gi and hakama as if she was on her way to teach a kendo class. For Kanako, she was wearing a black and white women's business dress with a long pencil skirt that ended just above her ankles; her belt was black but with hints of red accents. Kanako's dark hair was tied in a conservative single pony-tail. Tsuruko, though, Keitaro found his eyes staying on her a bit longer. He was used to her elegant beauty, of course, and he admired her strength but the best way he had come to describe the feelings he experienced whenever she was around him was simply this: noble grace.

"Good morning, Kana-chan, good morning Tsuruko-san," Keitaro smiled and "bowed" to each in turn. "Did you two have a good night's rest?"

Tsuruko returned the bow with a grin. "Very much so, Keitaro-san. I thank you for your gracious accommodation." She nodded back towards where the deck of the Inn lay around the building. "I see why Motoko-han enjoys practicing on that deck so much. My morning routine as the sun rose over the bay was much more rewarding than in a dojo."

"It is a great space for a variety of activities, my Lady," Kanako smiled. "Thus my grandfather had in mind when he built it."

Keitaro smiled. "So Tsuruko-san, you were up before dawn. Next time, you have my permission to knock on my door so I can begin my day too!"

"Ah!" Tsuruko raised an index finger up towards the sky about midway; a gesture both taking charge while gently chiding him. "Keitaro-san needs his rest."

"Well, um," he chuckled amidst a slight blush. "I just want to be around in case you have questions-"

"-or do you wish to practice with me?" Tsuruko gave him smile.

Keitaro laughed. "Only if we're practicing hobbling around. I would only be slowing a great warrior down."

Tsuruko touched a sleeve-covered arm to her mouth demurely. "Or does Keitaro-san wish to *watch* his new Housemother's kendo practice?"

Keitaro blushed deep red now, for a moment unsure whether he should continue laughing in good humor or apologize for seeming to possibly fall into the appearance of being even mildly perverted.

Kanako laughed loudly, gently slapping Keitaro on his shoulder. "The Lady is having a spot of fun with you, Big Brother." She looked at Keitaro knowingly, allowing him to meet her gaze to tell him there is no offense present and therefore no need for an apology storm from him.

'It will take time to better things around here for Big Brother,' Kanako thought as she noticed Keitaro start to relax and enjoy the joke amongst the three of them.

Tsuruko stopped laughing, still smiling, but she noted the sun's course across the eastern sky. Tsuruko gave Kanako a grateful look, and reminded herself to thank her servant later for helping defuse a possible misunderstanding between herself and Keitaro. 'I must establish trust between us early on for my role here to succeed; and also to investigate the mystery I have found myself wrapped up in,' she thought. She was not overly worried however; as excessive worry was also a downfall the same as too little worry. Tsuruko had impressed to Motoko the need to keep the Hina katana secured in her room when she was not around to wield it; and Motoko agreed when they had spoken briefly early this morning before Motoko went off to school. The sword was completely inert with Motoko as its Mistress and when it was sheathed in its katechana.

Still, from the corner of her eyes and the awareness of her ki she looked back towards the Inn. Just in case.

"Well, time for us to be getting down to the Tea Shop, Haruka will be waiting with old Kouzoumi-san." Keitaro nodded down towards the stone steps that lay before them.

"Yes, my Lady," Kanako nodded towards Tsuruko, gently telling the swordsmistress that Haruka did not like to be kept waiting.

Tsuruko returned her eyes to Kanako and Keitaro, she smiled warmly as the reason why she looked back at the Inn dissolved from her memory. "Yes, nothing like signing lots of legal documents to brighten one's' morning."

The three began their journey, the ladies sparing a moment to bid their familiars to watch and guard the premises of the Hinata Inn. For his part, Keitaro spared a moment to look back towards the window Kitsune usually would sit next to, enjoying the morning air while enjoying her coffee and reading her racing forms. But this morning the window was vacant, and Keitaro hoped that Kitsune did not overindulge (relatively, by her standards) the night before.

'I hope she's okay,' Keitaro thought. Making a mental note to check in with her later on in the day to get her input into new developments and if she's spoken to Naru.

He grimaced, the pain at thinking about Naru was less now, more of a resigned dull pang of receding sorrow, but it was still present. He worried about her.

Before Kuro and Shippu went about their separate morning patrols, Kuro meowed. -Humans, I never will understand their fascination with 'dressing up' for occasions when they sign dead-trees for such trifling reason-especially when there's no food in it!-

Shippu flap-flapped away up into the air, the crane spared a look at his mistress, Kanako, and Keitaro as they slowly made their way down the steps. -I agree, my friend- he called down to Kuro before flying too far. -It's hardly like anyone is getting life-mated or anything like that!-

000

"... very well then, these documents here pertain to the custodianship of the Inn and Tea House's filing with the Prefectural Office of Property…" Kouzoumi intoned as two identical reams of paper were placed in front of Keitaro and Tsuruko.

Kanako briefly fought off a yawn. They had been at this for over an hour and the constant legal-ese, explanations of tax liability, property holding, and other employment issues were boring her to tears, almost. She looked to Haruka.

Haruka, upon receiving permission from Kouzumi that he did not mind smoking, promptly lit one. She was on her third now. For her part, she kept looking from Keitaro to Tsuruko, and then to Kanako. Seemingly weighing some kind of mental option against another action or just doing nothing. Kanako gave her aunt a brief look.

'What's with her?' Kanako wondered.

Haruka's thoughts mirrored Kanako's; save for a follow-up: 'Doesn't she know what we are here for this morning?!' Haruka sighed.

Kanako sighed quietly, and returned her attention to what the family lawyer was saying now about sewer fees.

000

+TAP+TAP+TAP+

Hearing the repeating noise a certain fox was lying half asleep in her bed, after yet another night of drinking. "AWWW SHIT YA'LL ….WHOOOOOSE TAPPING?" Cried Kitsune as she is fully awoken. "Someone better not be interrupting the fox's beauty sleep… unless y'all be ready to pay; in CASH, too!"

Lifting her head ever so gently as to not aggravate her hangover, she scanned the room, and the noise suddenly stopped.

"Huh?" The fox commented half-heartedly, before yawning and waving her arm dismissively in the vague direction of where she thought the tapping sound had come from before rolling over to get a little more rest before dealing with life in general.

000

"... in the event of Hina Urashima's incapacitation or death her estate shall be divided up precisely in this way…" Kouzoumi continued in his methodical but smooth and pleasant manner. Keitaro idly recalled, after snapping himself back awake for the third time, that he had once asked the old gentleman attorney if he ever considered going into radio as he had the perfect voice for it. Kouzoumi had laughed warmly, and told Keitaro that was how he took care of his mother and siblings during his high school and college years.

Kanako looked again at the clock on the wall. This was taking a lot longer than it should take, even taking into account Kouzoumi's usual precision with contractual matters.

Tsuruko smiled pleasantly, sipping on a half-full mug of tea as she listened calmly while also mentally reviewing her morning practice routine and its effect on her muscles and ki. She then started to make mental plans for her upcoming afternoon/evening session. Perhaps Motoko will be home in time to join her?

Haruka extinguished another cigarette butt in her ashtray. She sighed, everyone was just so damned calm about all of this. She knew from many interactions with Kouzoumi that he only spent this much time on such dry contractual matters only in such important life-changing matters such as this.

Kouzoumi continued: "... the Inn and Annex and its attendant parcels will go to Keitaro Urashima… to Kanako Urashima the Urashima family holdings in the mountains of Kyoto… to your father and mother the office building adjacent to the family's confectionary…. And to Haruka the rest of the building and land of the tea shop and the beach cafe in its entirety..."

Kanako groaned very quietly. That old office building would probably be sold the day after her parents got their hands on the deed to some local ward councillor far below market value in exchange for kickbacks from the future renters.

Haruka immediately lit another cigarette. This meeting had to end soon. She had a business to run, special day or no special day.

Keitaro and Tsuruko shared a look that said it all. What exactly did this have to do with Tsuruko and Kanako's residence and employment at the Inn?

000

Motoko's Room 302...

+TAP+TAP+TAP+

Inside of the room we find the source of the noise, proudly displayed upon the katanakake rested the Hina blade. Or at least it would be resting if it weren't rocking back and forth while making a tapping noise, as dark black smoke seeped from the partially revealed blade as the rocking motion had caused the scabbard to slip from the freshly polished katana blade ever so slightly.

Suddenly a dark black vapor begins to seep out and hover, forming into a dark cloud in the young Samurai's room. In fast order, the cloud formed tendrils not unlike fine reaching and grasping fingers. A low toned chilling laugh reverberated throughout the room as the cloud began to build towards the floor and then seep through the floorboards.

As if searching for something the cloud passes from room to room, then going from the third floor to the second. Finally, it finds its target asleep in her bed in room 205. The dark cloud's tendrils reach towards the prone form and encircles the sleeping woman's head.

000

"... so we come now to the employment contracts…" Kouzoumi said after checking the time on his wristwatch, he then handed several documents to Keitaro, Tsuruko, and Kanako. They signed them all where indicated, and Haruka signed as a witness as well as Kouzoumi endorsing them as family legal counsel and making another notation and then a stamp.

'Why does he need to stamp the ones for Tsuruko-san and me?' Keitaro wondered.

Tsuruko's pleasant smile slowly dropped to a polite grin as her thoughts went in the same direction as Keitaro's.

000

She had no idea where she was or exactly how long she had been there.

'Huh,' wondered Kitsune as she wandered in the dense dark fog. "Where am I? Hey, y'all! Is anybody around?"

No answer.

For an indeterminable amount of time Kitsune wandered this foggy expanse, calling for her friends or anybody who could hear her, but received no answer.

Suddenly, a short while later-or a long while later (she could not be certain) Kitsune unexpectedly finds herself in the hot springs with sake cup in hand and bottle floating nearby.

The confused fox looks around at the warm afternoon setting and spying no one, shrugs and enjoys her drink.

Having the springs to herself was a secret pleasure for the resident party girl. Sure, she loved each of the girls and all the 'fun' she could have teasing them. However, nothing could quite beat an afternoon with the springs all to herself and a full bottle of sake.

As she enjoyed her drink, Kitsune began to wonder about the recent events at the Hinata; Keitaro's very near marriage to Motoko, Keitaro's acceptance to Tokyo U, Naru going on vacation (if it could be called that), and now the arrival of a new housemother and her servant. She found herself oddly attached to the boy, in spite of her better judgment. Sure he was a nice guy, but she had dated many richer and much better looking men who had never made her think twice after she had enjoyed their company for a night or three.

Yet with Naru's complete 180 on her study partner and apartment manager, the fox of the Hinata found herself seriously considering actually making a play for the big lug. As she weighed up her chances she began to realize that there was no reason not to pursue him, she liked him, and his reactions to seeing her varying states of dress over the last nearly two years indicated he liked her as well.

"Well," she took another sip of her sake, "he's certainly paid for the privilege of getting' some from me already and then some." She chuckled, a touch of melancholy to it, then the creeping sting of shame and regret behind it. It was time to make it up to Keitaro for all the mooching, sweet talking delays in paying rent, and the various pratfalls she's participated in setting him up for since he arrived.

She was broken from her inebriated, morose, inner monologue by the sound of the Shōji door sliding open.

"Who goes there?" Kitsune called whimsically. As she spied through the thick steam, the fox's expression brightened upon seeing a familiar looking figure as it steps onto the ledge. It was Keitaro.

Smiling, Kitsune waved in greeting. "Well, well lova' boy, I didn't know ya had it in ya to spy on me? What if Motoko finds yah?" She leaned back and luxuriated some more in the warm water, hoping the steam did not completely obscure her completely nude water-enveloped body from his view.

Rubbing the back of his head Keitaro chuckled shyly, just staring back at the fox and nods a few times as if in approval. Kitsune briefly wondered what was the matter with him before she heard his voice: "Oh, and why wouldn't I wish to 'spy' on such a fine specimen of womanhood?"

"Huh?" Kitsune reacted instinctively, this was the first time she had ever heard Keitaro express himself like that. It wasn't what he was saying, which was welcome to Kitsune in that moment in time, it was just the *how.*

Keitaro walked to the edge of the spring, breaking Kitsune's disbelief. Keitaro' continued smoothly: "Frankly I would not mind joining you in there and show you just how fine a specimen."

'...!" To say the fox was taken aback was an understatement. Sure she'd had a few drinks, but this seemed almost too good to be true. Then again, he was technically back on the market and had been around some of the best looking girls around for practically two years. Idly, Kitsune wondered: 'Maybe he's finally grown a pair?'

But what happened next really surprised the fox as she watched Keitaro smile, then slowly step towards her without his feet breaching the surface water of the hot springs.

''Kay, now that I *know* I am dreaming I can just sit back, relax, and hope I don't have to wash my sheets when I wake up,' Kitsune thought, giddy with anticipation. 'Kami, I better not wake up before the main event!'

Slowly walking towards her prone, but smiling, form Keitaro lets an all knowing smile grace his features. "What is the matter, my dear Kitsune?"

"…." Kitsune attempted to reply but found herself at a loss for words. Mentally, her mind continued with wondering why her dream Keitaro was speaking so out of character for him.

These musings were derailed suddenly as he slowly and methodically approached her, lowering himself into the water from his standing position without even disturbing a ripple. Keitaro's smirk deepened as he bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead, almost formally.

Kitsune smiled. The sensation of the light kiss was pleasant, but she had been kissed plenty of times in her dreams before, and it had not felt quite like this. What was the odd fluttering and tingling she was feeling? And why did the steam of the hot springs smell like smoke?

"What is the matter, my dear Kitsune?"

There was that question again. Who had spoken it?

"Why do you hesitate? What are you waiting for?" Keitaro smiled at her. Just then, she realized she had pulled back from Keitaro after he gave her a light peck on the forehead.

Hating herself for the moment the mischievous freelancer ponders this. 'This is Keitaro? Even in the dreams I have had about him before he has never been so forward and ready to get it on!' She sighed inwardly, it was her dream, what could possibly go wrong? 'Nevermind, 'i've got em to myself,' she thought as she smiled at him. She mentally berated herself for not freely accepting the gift her subconscious was giving to her libido.

She noted Keitaro's' concern for her was just so damned charming in that moment in time. She also realized Keitaro currently had the upper hand when it came to smartalec comments. Not to be out done by the former ronin, Kitsune replied: "Well 'ahl be, did you finally grow a pair now Naru's gone and decide to have ya wicked way with me?"

Finding her reply honestly amusing Keitaro chuckled. "I must admit I was considering that my dear, however there is one problem with that."

"Oh? And what would that be, Kei hon?"

Keitaro's tone became more conspiratorial, even if they were alone in the hot springs and this was Kitsune's wet dream. "Do you remember the battle with Motoko's sister and that cursed blade of my grandmother's that made us… you know?" His face reddened.

'Now that's the Kei hon I know,' she thought as she chucked to herself in amusement. "Ya' mean that big smooch we had?" she winked, her voice drawling with impressive silkiness to it. "How could I forget?"

Keitaro looked Kitsune in the eye. Keitaro leaned in close to her and started to whisper into her ear-

000

To an outside observer, if anyone had been in the Hinata Inn during those moments, they would have noticed a billowing cloud with tendrils roaming the halls leading from Kitsune's room. One of the tendrils was pulling Kitsune by her hand, while the foxes' other hand was barely managing to keep her modesty in check by holding a towel wrapped around herself haphazardly. They were heading in the direction of the stair well. Kitsune's eyes were wide-open, but saw nothing, and her eyeballs were still rolled up in their sockets.

000

'I can't believe it,' wondered Kitsune as Keitaro led her through the Hinata and up the stairs. Her eyes opening wide as her thoughts continued along the way down the hall. 'Has he made up his mind this soon..?'

..ts..une?" So caught up in her own exhilaration and fevered anticipation that Kitsune had not realised they had stopped and Keitaro was waving his hand over her face.

"Are you okay?" Keitaro asked.

Snapped from her daze, Kitsune shook her head. There was that smell of smoke again. "Sorry?"

"I said 'Kitsune, here we are.'" He nodded over to the wall, a familiar door there. Motoko's room. He slid the Shōji door to the kendo girl's room open and led her in by the hand behind him.

Kitsune's eyes opened wide as Keitaro turned to her with a smile on his features; somehow different than any other smile she had ever seen on his face before. "You want to 'play' in Motoko's room?" She slid the door shut behind them. "Pervert," she grinned at him.

Keitaro laughed. "My dear, you are about to find out." His eyes shone in that moment. And they shined pitch black.

The smell of black smoke fully assaulted Kitsune's nose again, causing her, even in her dream to completely lose all consciousness.

000

Completely in a daze, Kitsune had made her way from her room to Motoko's and staggered towards the dark blade. Her eyes were still open, but unseeing, and her arms hung limply at her sides. Her steps gave the impression, if anyone beside the dark cloud and its tendrils were there, of a marionette being led by its strings.

Then a quiet vibrating, pulsing hum could be heard from the direction of the blade, then that hum resolved into a maniacal laugh, as the cloud's tendrils began to direct Kitsune's arms and hands as she took the final steps to where Motoko's katanakake sat, with the Hina blade in its scabbard on it. Now the tendrils of the cloud fully enveloped her arms and hands as the scabbard was soon removed and tossed carelessly to the wooden floor. Then, the tendrils raised Kitsune's arms high above her head with the sword hilt held in both hands.

The cloud barked its final order at its puppet. "NOW SMASH THAT BLADE!"

Upon contact with the katanakake, the blade is shattered into pieces and more, even blacker smoke gushes out as Kitsune passes out completely, crumpling to the floor.

As the room begins to fill completely with the same sinister smoke one last cry is heard: "FINALLY FREE!" Then that mocking, derisive, malevolent laughter.

000

"Well! Everything seems to be in order." Kouzoumi smiled as he rose, everyone else did as well, Haruka being the last.

"I'll say," Haruka sighed, looking from Keitaro to Tsuruko. She shook her head. "Congratulations," she bowed.

Keitaro and Tsuruko blinked. "Um, thank you," Keitaro chuckled, feeling a sweatdrop form. An odd, cold feeling seemed to be creeping up his spine.

Tsuruko nodded. She felt her awareness drawn back to the unseen Inn up on the hill. She could almost picture it mentally, detail for detail, in particular the wonderful hot springs...

Kanako felt that familiar feeling began in the pit of her stomach when something was afoot.

"Yes, congratulations," Kouzoumi bowed deeply to Keitaro and then to Tsuruko. "I must now formally inform all present that my service as the Urashima clan's attorney has ceased as of five minutes ago when my appointment by the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture as a Hinata Justice of the Peace became effective. It has been an honor and a pleasure to have served the family all these years; rest assured I have already informed Hina-sama." Kouzoumi laughed, "I also timed things just so after twelve noon in my new capacity as a Judge I notarized the civil marriage license between you two that Hina-sama prepared as well as the Urashima family register."

Dead silence, save for Kouzoumi's good natured humming and chuckling (which oddly mirrored Granny Hina's chuckling to everyone present) as he smoothly and efficiently gathered his documents and placed them neatly back into his attache case.

Haruka looked at the same expressions on Keitaro, Tsuruko, and also Kanako's faces. Complete shock and disbelief. Her eyes widened as Kouzoumi bowed deeply again and gave his final congratulations, best wishes, and then a farewell as he let himself out of the front door of the tea shop (which was hardly even noticed). "You mean you two didn't know?!" Haruka shouted at Keitaro and Tsuruko. "Granny Hina even spelled this one out in her fax yesterday!"

'That mischievous, calculating old crone,' Tsuruko thought as she smirked thinly, she bit her lower lip ever so slightly.

'... I'm married…? To Tsuruko-san…?' Keitaro's eyes widened, he felt the room spinning around him.

"This has to be some kind of prank on Granny's part," Kanako said, shaking her head. "It has to be."

Haruka sighed in exasperation at her niece. "It's a pretty damned elaborate one then," she jabbed a finger at Keitaro and Tsuruko. "And you two idiots fell right for it!"

"You-you didn't say anything about marriage yesterday!" Keitaro sputtered. "There was nothing in the letter and the documents Tsuruko-san and Kana-chan came to the door with!"

"Keitaro-san is quite correct on that point," Tsuruko commented. Something else was wrong here. She looked all around the tea shop's main dining room.

Kanako nodded in the affirmative. "They're right, Haruka."

Haruka laughed loudly and harshly. "You two still should have asked more questions at how I was acting, and also everything Kouzoumi was having you two sign."

Tsuruko turned towards Haruka, her eyes narrowing minutely. "Oh, and knowing Granny Hina as you do should you not have questioned her and immediately raised a ruckus yesterday at the Inn about this? Do you seriously think Keitaro-san and I would just suddenly up and get married like you just witnessed if we weren't being tricked?"

Haruka just shook her head, then simply turned and strode towards the door that Kouzoumi had left through. She had not heard heard his car start yet; indeed she could see it through the blinds on the windows of the tea shop, so it would just be a simple matter to get the marriage and family register documents and destroy them-

-Haruka stopped dead cold in her tracks as she heard a sharp intake of breath from Keitaro. She knew instantly that he was not going to faint from processing the sudden fact of his civil marriage to Tsuruko. Her eyes met his.

"... something's really wrong up at the Inn!" Keitaro blurted out as he pointed back vaguely towards the direction of the Inn, immediately turning around as swift as he could on his crutches and making to leave the tea shop.

"Yes, it is!" Tsuruko blinked, horrified at the realization that her ki had been trying to warn her during the meeting, but somehow her attention had been misdirected or masked from feeling the presence growing back up the hill. She dashed out past Keitaro, out the back door and then up the stone staircase, her hand already on Ikazuchi.

"Haruka!" Kanako called back over her shoulder as she followed her Mistress. "Help Big Brother!" In an instant she was gone in the same direction as Tsuruko.

"You don't even have to ask," Haruka quickly extinguished the lit cigarette and started out the back door too; hurrying and helping her hobbled nephew make his way up the stone stairs to the Inn.

000

TO BE CONTINUED...


End file.
